Was Donald Trump's thumbs up rude?

On Saturday, a White House reporter for Politico tweeted some US embassy guidelines for behaviour in Saudi Arabia, identifying one point in particular.

Shortly, Trump was seen riding an escalator, and, er, well you can see where this is going.

However, it seems that the US embassy may have made a mistake here. Many people claiming to be from Saudi Arabia have expressed confusion as to why it's seen as offensive in the guidelines.

As the National Review pointed out, the Defence Language Institute advised that many countries adopted the Western hand movement after the Gulf conflict:

This gesture, expressing connotations of 'I am winning,' historically is offensive to many Arabs. After the Gulf conflict, however, Middle Easterners of the Arabian Peninsula adopted this handmovement, along with the OK sign, as a symbol of cooperation toward freedom.

So, it doesn't seem to apply in Saudi Arabia and Trump is fine to thumbs up all he likes - at least by this example:

HT Washington Post

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