The relationship between President Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, got off to an unpromising start, said Fred Kaplan on Slate. At their first meeting in May, they locked palms in a “death-grip handshake”, which Macron later said he had intended as a “moment of truth” to show that France was a force to be reckoned with. But over the following weeks, Macron clearly decided that, as “an aspiring leader of Europe, he should try to make friends” with Trump – and he hit on exactly the right way to go about it: flattery. Last week, he laid on an extravagant welcome for Donald and Melania Trump in Paris, treating them to dinner atop the Eiffel Tower and inviting them to the Bastille Day parade. Trump, who is a sucker for military marches, was tickled pi