The late Queen Elizabeth thought Donald Trump was “very rude” and “particularly disliked” one of his habits, according to claims from a new book.
Craig Brown’s A Voyage Around The Queen, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, suggests the late monarch was irked by the then-US president’s tendency to look over her shoulder while in conversation.
Reportedly, the Queen thought it seemed as though he was “in search of others more interesting”.
The sovereign, who died in September 2022, hosted Trump during two separate US visits to the UK.
Like all members of the Royal Family, the Queen was expected to remain apolitical at all times and act as the government’s most effective form of “soft diplomacy”.
But it seems just “weeks after” one of the former president’s UK trips, she supposedly “confided in one lunch guest” about what she really thought of Trump.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the claim, as it is custom for the royals not to remark on biographies.
The reports will come as a blow to Trump who is currently campaigning to be re-elected to the White House.
He has regularly spoken of his allegedly strong bond with the late monarch, even telling Fox News that they had a “great relationship”.
Speaking in 2019, he said: “I think I can say I really got to know her because I sat with her many times and we had automatic chemistry, you understand that feeling, it’s a good feeling.”
He claimed, “we had a period where we were talking solid, straight, I didn’t even know who the other people at the table were, never spoke to them,” and even added “there are those that say they have never seen the Queen have a better time, a more animated time.”
After protesters campaigned against his 2018 trip – including with a Trump “baby blimp” – the president’s expected state visit was downgraded to a working visit, meaning he had little of the usual pomp and ceremony.
Trump reportedly broke royal protocol repeatedly during that meeting by walking in front of the Queen and keeping her waiting for 10 minutes.
But he was allowed a state UK visit the following year – complete with state banquet – and Buckingham Palace said he had been a “model” guest.