The French president said his white-knuckled handshake with Donald Trump was a “moment of truth” meant to show he’s no weakling.

Emmanuel Macron told a French newspaper on Sunday that “my handshake with him, it wasn’t innocent.”

“One must show that you won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones, but also not over-publicize things, either,” he told the Le Journal du Dimanche.

Macron, who was elected on May 7, said Trump, like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s leader Tayyip Erdogan, value strength.

“Donald Trump, the Turkish president or the Russian president believe in the logic of the trial of strength, which doesn’t bother me. I don’t believe in the diplomacy of public invective, but in my bilateral dialogues, I don’t let anything pass, that is how we are respected,” he said.

Trump and Macron squeezed each other so tight during a handshake at the NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday that their knuckles turned white. And even as Trump tried to pull away, Macron kept his grip for several more seconds.