# Would you shake Trump's hand knowing where it has been? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 17, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882 "2016-10-17T22:01:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/1 "2016-10-17T22:01:32Z")
Would you shake Trump’s hand knowing where all it has been? Perhaps this is why Hillary did not shake it the other night! ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/2 "2016-10-17T22:10:27Z")
Shake it? No. Break it? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/3 "2016-10-17T22:15:26Z")
I wouldn’t shake his hand because he’s Donald Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/4 "2016-10-17T22:19:42Z")
I know of one poster who definitely would not. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/5 "2016-10-17T22:26:35Z")
Back in the 1800’s, there was a practice called cutting, which meant to look directly at a person, and yet to refuse to acknowledge their existence. It was used to punish social transgressors, and by all accounts was devastating. I doubt that it would have too much of an effect on Trump. Too subtle. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/6 "2016-10-17T22:43:44Z")
I don’t get it. Where has it been? Dude is supposed to be OCD about washing his hands. He eats pizza and fried chicken with utensils. Utensils!!! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/7 "2016-10-17T23:25:20Z")
As **Ravenman** points out, Trump is a known germophobe, so the potential for his hand to be a vector for dangerous pathogens is low. OTOH, as **JohnT** reminds us, we know that where it’s been is on the end of Donald Trump, which is a splendid reason for declining to shake it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/8 "2016-10-17T23:53:19Z")
I’d give Trump a fake handshake. Offer him my hand, and then pull it away at the last second. Too slow. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/9 "2016-10-18T03:15:07Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I’d give Trump a fake handshake. Offer him my hand, and then pull it away at the last second. > > Too slow. 😃 And then I’d do the “what’s that on your tie” [trick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvSHW516tuc) and ding him one on the nose. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/10 "2016-10-18T03:31:59Z")
I’d make a show of putting on double stacked medical surgical gloves before shaking his hand. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/11 "2016-10-18T03:41:57Z")
The only problematic location where Trump’s hands have been is attached to the rest of Trump. To argue, even jokingly, about how there’s something wrong with Trump’s hands because he used them to grope women is to imply that the women were the source of the problem. They weren’t; they were the victims. The moral stain was completely contained within Trump the whole time. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/12 "2016-10-18T12:51:21Z")
A few years ago at work, a woman came in and was seated in the waiting area for a while. When she left, an employee made a big show of spraying the chair down with disinfectant while everyone else guffawed. Nobody would let me in on the joke, and a few of the women turned beet red when I asked. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/13 "2016-10-18T13:01:21Z")
I don’t think he could get his short fingers around my hand. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/14 "2016-10-18T13:14:39Z")
I’d shake his hand after shitting and wiping but not washing my hands. ---
**Author:** ![Crybaby\_Boobie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crybaby_boobie/32/545_2.png) [@Crybaby\_Boobie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crybaby_Boobie)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/15 "2016-10-18T13:21:16Z")
I always like it when a baby’s hand wraps itself around 1 of my fingers. I imagine this would just be a more awkward version. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/16 "2016-10-18T13:32:15Z")
“I bet it feels huge in this hand.” - Deadpool ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/17 "2016-10-18T13:34:40Z")
Yes, I would shake his hand, even knowing it has been to New York. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/18 "2016-10-18T13:52:04Z")
I’d rather risk shaking his hand than smoking a cigar from Bill. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/19 "2016-10-18T22:32:37Z")
This is not really a discussion of the election. Off to The BBQ Pit. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882/20 "2016-10-19T01:38:14Z")
I’d bring one of my cats, just to see if he’d reflexively reach for it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-shake-trumps-hand-knowing-where-it-has-been/768882.md?page=2)