Queen Elizabeth II had the sad duty of entertaining Donald Trump and his wife twice during the Trump “presidency.” Trump has always believed that he had some kind of special connection to the Windsors, and he used his “love” of QEII to bash the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, claiming that Harry and Meghan disrespected the queen. Meanwhile, Trump always had a thing for Princess Diana (I’m sure she told him to take a hike) and he’s talked sh-t about Camilla, the current queen consort. But I digress. There’s another new royal book and there are stories about how much QEII hated spending time with the Trumps.

The late Queen found Donald Trump “very rude”, according to a biography of the former monarch. Elizabeth II is said to have “particularly disliked” the way the former US president, whom she hosted twice during her reign, looked over her shoulder as if he was “in search of others more interesting”.

The claims are made in the book Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail.

One extract reads: “Over the course of her reign, Her Majesty entertained many controversial foreign leaders, including Bashar al-Assad, Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Donald Trump, Emperor Hirohito and Vladimir Putin. She may not have found their company convivial; upon their departure, she may even have voiced a discreet word of disapproval.”

“A few weeks after President Trump’s visit, for instance, she confided in one lunch guest that she found him ‘very rude’: she particularly disliked the way he couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting. She also believed President Trump ‘must have some sort of arrangement’ with his wife Melania, or else why would she have remained married to him? For his part, Donald Trump was confident he had been her favourite guest ever.”

[From The Telegraph]

I was looking through the photos we have of Trump’s visits to the UK, and what’s notable now (and it was notable at the time too) was how often QEII pawned the Trumps off on Charles and Camilla. Charles and Camilla were the ones who had to host private dinners for the Trumps at Clarence House and do that kind of entertaining. Anyway, I absolutely believe that QEII thought Trump was a lout and a dumbass, but I don’t buy that she had any particular view of the Trump marriage, and that she would share that view with some lunch guest.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.