US President Donald Trump grabbed eyeballs for the wrong reasons again as he was spotted apparently showing the middle finger during a televised interaction with female astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS). It isn't clear if the President was indeed showing the indecent gesture or if the act was an unpremeditated and casual way of running the finger over the forehead.
The incident happened during a video call with two US astronauts, Jessica Meir and her colleague Christina Koch, who were on the International Space Station. Trump started his comments by congratulating them, but his remark was corrected by one of the astronauts.
Trump had inaccurately said that it was the first time a female astronaut was walking outside the ISS. "We are thrilled to be speaking live with two brave American astronauts who are making history joining us during their spacewalk...And this is the first time for a woman outside of the space station," the president remarked.
But the American astronaut corrected the President. "First of all, we don't want to take too much credit, because there have been many other female space walkers before us. This is just the first time there have been two women outside at the same time," Meir said.
It is what happened after the correction that landed Trump in soup. The president was immediately seen scratching his forehead with his middle finger. Though the act is ambivalent, Twitter users were quick to say that Trump showed the middle finger to the astronaut. "He gives them the middle finger after they correct his erroneous remark. How presidential," one Twitter user said. But another observer said Trump wasn't likely flipping the bird. "There is absolutely no way that was not on purpose."
Interestingly, Gizmodo has put together an article compiling a couple more of occasions when Trump can be seen using the middle finger to make a point. One of this was at a White House event in 2017. The president can be seen using middle finger while Omarosa Manigault, who was to leave the White House and go on to write a book criticising him, was sitting beside him. Another occasion was during his impromptu press briefing in September 2017 after he was criticized for railing against NFL players.
