President Donald Trump welcomed Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to the White House on Monday, presenting him with two bottles of his signature "Victory 45-47" perfume, including one for the Syrian leader's wife, while asking "how many wives he had."
The meeting marked the first visit to the Oval Office by a Syrian head of state since the country's independence in 1946.
Al-Sharaa, 43, a former rebel commander once wanted by the US with a $10 million bounty, took power after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last December.
And in a clip from the Oval Office that circulated online on Wednesday, the president presented al-Sharaa with a bottle of his cologne, spraying it on the Syrian leader's neck.
"It's the best scent," Trump insisted, continuing to spray another Syrian cabinet member.
“Just take that one, the other one is for your wife,” Trump said, according to an aide present at the exchange. “How many wives do you have?”
And Al-Sharaa laughed, saying: “One!”
Trump joked: "With you guys, you never know. Do you?"
The US recently voted to lift sanctions on al-Sharaa's government, signaling "a thaw" in relations after years of isolation. /Telegraph/
