Mike,
	I'm one of those people that spent over half of my life making the sign of the cross. In my case it was purely superstitious, as it was for all my family and friends - none of us, none, ever really even thought about what we were doing. It was actually not very different from saying, "God bless you", for someone who sneezes - certainly they don't consider sneezing something that merits a blessing - years ago, I used to ask people since they blessed me for sneezing, what would they offer for a cough or a burp? - they were not happy with that, though. Most times, when approaching something religious, or something dangerous, or something unknown, or something dead, we would reflexively make that sign of the cross in hopes of a little extra protection or a little extra blessing. The making of the sign of the cross with the hand was never done in the scriptures, it is only something of a tradition. I said all that to make sure that I'm not misunderstood, that anyone reading this would think that I'm advocating making the sign of the cross.

	During the Dark Ages, many men returned from the Crusades, wounded, and some missing their right hands or arms. Similar things happened in recent history in our country, men returned from the Civil War, the World Wars, and others, missing their right hands. Those that were Catholics were never forbidden by cannon law, or by the priests, from making the sign of the cross with their only remaining hand. For those Catholics that were missing the right hand, they had to make the sign of the cross with their left, and it was not considered unholy for them to do so, by other Catholics.

	Also, I spent a number of years working in Orthodox countries. When they make the sign of the cross, their horizontal part goes from the right shoulder first, to the left shoulder second - which is "backward" from Western or Catholic countries. Also they place the wedding ring on the right hand, rather than the left, which is "backwards" from the Western or Catholic countries.
	
	I'm not advocating making the sign of the cross with the hand, and I'm certainly not on the side of our current president. However, in this situation, he may have ignorantly attempted to do something religious, to supposedly invoke some kind of extra blessing, but since he grew up Islamic, instead of Catholic or Orthodox, he didn't have the tradition down pat, so he looked rather foolish. If he ever intended to purposely do it backwards and with a left hand, in order to provoke, or worse, like people wearing upside-down crosses, then I would have imagined that he would have done it in a far more somber setting, like at the UN, or during the State of the Union Address.

	Anyway, I could be nuts, and may have gone way overboard, above, and perhaps you were right - can't be sure with our current president,
		Thank you,
			Gino