President Trump and France’s newly elected leader Emmanuel Macron kicked off their first face-to-face meeting Thursday with a handshake so intense, their knuckles turned white.

The two presidents gripped each other’s hands tightly, their faces and jaws straining to reflect the intensity of the moment at the US ambassador’s residence in Brussels.

Trump seemed to try to pull away at one point, but Macron held tight until the president released his fingers and slipped from the grip, the lower part of his right hand and little finger still white.

After the hand-to-hand jousting, Trump lauded Macron, who was elected on May 7, telling him he had run “an incredible campaign and had a tremendous victory.”