Donald Trump besieged Queen Elizabeth II with a barrage of questions about her family and regard for previous presidents, according to a new book.
The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, by Susan Page, details the Queen's relationships with a steady stream of U.S. presidents, from her first encounter with President Harry Truman, when she was Princess Elizabeth in 1951, to the final state dinner of her seven-decade reign, held in 2019 in honor of Trump.
During that state visit – the first of two Trump has made to date, but the last one during the Queen's life – he reportedly probed her majesty on her grandson Prince Harry's relationship with his wife, Meghan, a few months after the birth of the couple's first child. At the time, the British press was routinely reporting that a "feud" had emerged between Prince Harry and Prince William, and their spouses.
Extracts from the book, published by USA Today, purportedly reveal Trump's version of how his questioning of the late Queen went down.
"I asked her about it constantly," Trump said, according to the book. "I'd say, 'Come on, tell me (what you really think).'"
She replied, "No, no. It's very nice."
Despite the Queen's propriety, Trump was apparently unconvinced.
"I really think it hurt her," he said, in reference to the fallout reportedly occurring in the Royal family. "I just don't think they treated her with the respect that she should have, frankly."
During the same state visit, Trump also attempted, unsuccessfully, to draw the Queen to appraise the other 14 U.S. presidents she had met – 12 of them while they were in office – and even to pick a favourite, the books reveal.
"I said, 'So could I ask you who was your favorite president?'" Trump said.
She replied: "Why? They were all so good," the book recounts.
Of the encounter, Trump reportedly said: "I couldn't get her to say a bad thing about anybody."
Despite refusing to answer the question, according to Page, Trump had a theory that the Queen's all-time favorite president was none other than himself.
"We just got along," Trump said. His then-ambassador, Woody Johnson, agreed, the book says. "The president has a very keen sense of things like that," the New York Jets owner added.
According to Page, some former presidents and first ladies were skeptical of Trump's presumption, too.
“That’s hysterical,” Jill Biden said as Joe Biden shook his head, as the book describes it. “Oh, that fits his character, for sure.”
Hillary Clinton reportedly responded, “Why am I not surprised by that?” adding: “I don’t think there is any evidence to believe that could possibly be true.”
The publication of the book comes as the "special relationship" between the UK and the US has been tested by Trump's frustrations with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's response to the war in Iran.
Last week, a senior UK lawmaker joined the mounting calls for King Charles’s visit to the US to be delayed amid worsening relations between the two nations.
King Charles has been credited with playing a vital role in easing relations between the UK and the US, with the president’s second state visit last year seen as a broad success.
Despite the tensions, the White House is expected to announce the king’s state visit to the U.S. this week, according to a report.
The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History is published by Harper and comes out on April 14.
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