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Melania Trump’s Real Reason for Swatting Donald Trump’s Hand Still Suggests Their Marriage Was Rocky

There has been a lot of speculation about Donald and Melania Trump‘s marriage because the couple seems to enjoy their independent lives. During their White House years, several awkward moments made many people question how good things were behind closed doors — and now, former press secretary and chief of staff Stephanie Grisham is answering those questions in her memoir, I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House.

The author gives insight into what happened during their trip to Israel when the whole world saw Melania swat her husband’s hand away when he went to grab for it on their walk down the tarmac. Grisham notes that this incident caused “endless speculation about the state of the Trump marriage,” per an excerpt obtained by SheKnows. “At one point, while they were walking together down the red carpet, President Trump was a few steps ahead of Mrs. Trump,” she described the moment. “He reached out and slightly behind him with his left hand, apparently to try to take Mrs. Trump’s right hand. Without breaking her stride and with a flick of her wrist, she appeared to swat his hand away and kept walking….”

Now that tiny “hand slap” was obvious enough at the moment because all of the attention was on the president and the first lady as they were walking down the red carpet. Grisham offers up the reason why it happened — and probably not for the reason anyone expected. “For those who care to know, Mrs. Trump ‘slapped’ her husband’s hand away that day because she thought it was against protocol to hold hands at such a formal ceremony,” she explained. The former Trump aide calls Melania “a rule follower” and Donald would sometimes try to antagonize her because he knew it would upset her. “He often tried to hold her hand or messed with her hands on purpose in front of the camera to irritate her,” she wrote.

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Of course, this wasn’t the only time we saw the swatting of the hands, it happened at least five other times during his administration — and there’s plenty of video evidence to back it up. There was obviously tension in the marriage with a reluctant first lady and her husband with major political ambitions. Grisham adds color commentary to what we were all witnessing — an ongoing marital spat for all the world to see.

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Click here to see Melania’s quotes about Donald Trump, from their marriage to the presidential race.

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