A video of Donald and Melania Trump during Pope Francis' funeral at the Vatican has gone viral. The American First Lady saved her husband from a potentially embarrassing moment.
During the three-hour service, at one point, the crowd was invited to shake hands, but Donald Trump did not participate. The video shows Trump looking around during the ritual, before Melania rushes to his aid. Lip reader Nicola Hickling told Britain's Daily Mail that Melania whispered to her husband to start shaking hands before Trump reluctantly reached out to French President Emmanuel Macron.
"You need to do it," Melania whispered in Trump's ear, then repeated.
"Oh, good," the US president replied. He then shook hands with Estonian President Alar Karis and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain.
Donald and Melania Trump sat in the front row at the Pope's funeral. It was previously reported that Trump would not be given such a prominent seat, as priority is given to members of the royal family.
However, the seating arrangement for international leaders at Pope Francis' funeral appears to be the result of careful diplomatic planning. Argentina, the pope's country of birth, was given priority in the arrangement, Index reports.
After Argentina, Italy followed, since the Pope was the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the Italian Catholic bishops. Then the ruling sovereigns were arranged alphabetically according to the French language, and after them the heads of state and then the heads of government, such as the British Prime Minister, as well as other representatives, explains the "Mirror".
French is used in the seating chart because it is considered the language of diplomacy, but also because it changes the order that an English speaker would expect. Trump, for example, comes relatively early on the list, as America is referred to in French as "États-Unis d'Amérique", thus securing a seat in the front row. The United Kingdom ("Royaume-Uni") was thus near the end.
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