Donald Trump talked about his admiration for the Royal Family during a press conference in Scotland – but some were left convinced his words were a swipe at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
Donald Trump has been accused of taking another swipe at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – this time on his trip to Scotland.
The US president has been visiting his golf courses in both Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire over the last few days – and also holding talks with the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. The pair took part in a joint press conference, where Trump fielded questions on a range of topics as the PM watched on. At one point in the proceedings, Trump began to talk about his love of the Royal Family, with King Charles set to host him on a state visit in the coming weeks.
He said: “Being with Charles, Camilla and everybody, I’ve got to know a lot of the family members. They are great people. They are really great people.”
However, he followed up with: “And in that sense, I think the UK is very lucky, you could have people that weren’t great people. I don’t know if I can say that, but you could have people that weren’t.”
And to some on social media, they took his words as “calling out” Harry and Meghan, with Trump known to not be a fan of the Sussexes.
Harry has long been berated by Trump since he and Meghan took the dramatic decision to quit as working royals and move to the United States more than four years ago.
Back in 2020, at the time of the last US election campaign between Mr Trump and Joe Biden, the Sussexes appeared in a video urging Americans to ‘vote against hate speech’.
While they did not specifically mention anyone by name, the remarks were interpreted as referring to Mr Trump and therefore an endorsement of Mr Biden, with some claiming it was a breach of the Sandringham Summit agreement, which was written up when the couple quit their royal duties in 2020. Later, Mr Trump spoke out, saying he was “no fan” of Meghan.
Fast forward to earlier this year, Harry has found himself in the centre of a row over his visa, which allows him to live in California.
After admitting to using marijuana, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms in his controversial memoir Spare, a lawsuit from the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation argued that the US Government should release records about the Duke’s US visa application to show whether his drug use was disclosed.
Back in February, Trump ruled out deporting Harry, he took a brutal dig at Harry’s wife, Meghan, saying: “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.” And Harry appeared to hit back during a speech at the Invictus Games by criticising the “weak moral character in the world “.
After the royals’ summer break, Trump will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle during his unprecedented second state visit to the UK.
The US president will be accompanied by his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, on his state visit to the UK from September 17 to 19, Buckingham Palace said.
This will be Mr Trump’s second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented gesture towards an American leader, having previously been feted by a state visit in 2019. In February this year, Keir Starmer presented the US president with a letter from the King as he invited him for the visit during a meeting at the White House.
As the pair were sat next to each other in the Oval Office, Sir Keir handed the president the personal invitation, later saying, “This is truly historic and unprecedented”. After reading it, Mr Trump said it was a “great, great honour”, adding “and that says at Windsor – that’s really something”.