President Obama landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to meet with King Salman amid rising tensions between the two oil-rich nations.
The president was apparently snubbed on arrival at the airport in Riyadh; Obama was greeted not by the king himself, as were the visiting leaders of other Gulf nations, but by the governor of Riyadh. However, that did not prevent the president from deploying his signature bow on the tarmac.
Obama has landed in Riyadh pic.twitter.com/aN11OGYZEk
— Kathleen Hennessey (@khennessey) April 20, 2016
It might not be obvious at first, but a statistical analysis confirms that a bow did indeed occur.
Perhaps the airport snub did weigh on Obama’s mind, because this particular bow was rather subtle compared to the bow with which he graced the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during a global summit in London in April 2009, an analysis found.
This particular bow is perhaps the most famous of Obama’s career. While aggressively reverential, it was still several degrees short of the president’s epic male curtsy before the emperor of Japan in November 2009.
All photos: AFP/Getty Images
