Trump and King Charles: A love story

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London: In the weeks since Donald Trump was endorsed by the American people for a second stint in the White House, diplomats and think tank types around the world have been pondering how, and perhaps more importantly, who can get his ear.

A fine bromance between Donald Trump and King Charles could be the UK’s secret weapon in securing the ear of the next White House administration.Credit: AP

It was a question posed at a geopolitical chinwag with an Australian flavour here in London a few weeks ago. Joe Hockey, the former Australian treasurer and US ambassador, had some remarkable insights. When it came to the question of how Britain could do so, he suggested the type of person who could be deployed was King Charles.

At this point, a few seasoned Britons in the room rolled their eyes and muttered under their breath. The climate-obsessed King and the Donald, they scoffed? Not on your Nellie.

But if you haven’t seen it already, you should acquaint yourself with a video of Trump on his private jet speaking about Charles which did the rounds on social media during the US election. In footage shot for a TV series about his political comeback, The Art of the Surge, Trump’s fascination for all things royal was on full display.

He showed off a book of photographs of himself with Queen Camilla (“who was fantastic, by the way”) and Charles, standing near the honour guard at Buckingham Palace.

“Look, Charles, so beautiful,” Trump says, leafing through the pages. “These images, I mean, who has images like these?”

He then flicks to another picture of himself with the late Queen Elizabeth II during his state visit in 2019.

“This is your favourite president with the Queen,” he says. “She was unbelievable. She was great. We had a very good relationship. Really good.”

Trump’s meeting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2019 was one of the highlights of his life.Credit: AP

Like Kevin Rudd’s well-documented circumstances as Australian ambassador to Washington, the British diplomatic corps also have some hurdles ahead when it comes to winning Trump’s love.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, as a Labour backbencher in 2018, once described Trump as “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”. He has since dismissed those comments as “old news”, recently telling the BBC that they did not come up when he and now-Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with him for dinner in Trump Tower in September.

But understandably, the Britons are worried, not only about Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on trading partners but also withdrawing support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Then there are his concerns about NATO alliances and his hostility to the Paris climate accord.

So, will Charles, who as head of state and the sovereign is supposed to be apolitical, be the secret weapon to help shape Trump’s views?

“Charles and Donald Trump got along better than anybody realised – because they had some things in common that they were able to talk about,” said Mick Mulvaney, who served as chief of staff in Trump’s first White House for 15 months but resigned from the administration after the January 6 riots.

“Trump is really good at this,” Mulvaney said in a recent interview. “They were interested in architecture. The King prefers a more traditional style than Trump. But it was a conversation topic. Also, Trump does great work on the environment; his golf courses have won awards for environmental protection … his golf course up in Aberdeen is very close to a royal piece of property, and they talked about environmental management. That’s how Trump works.”

Trump’s long-lasting love for the British royals is said to have come from his childhood and particularly the influence of his mother, the Scotland-born Mary Anne MacLeod.

Fiona Hill, who served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, wrote in her memoir: “Meeting Queen Elizabeth II was particularly important to President Trump ... A meeting with the Queen of England was the ultimate sign that he, Trump, had made it in life.”

Many stories have been told about Trump’s visit to Buckingham Palace for that state dinner. The narrative is usually that he was rude and rather unwelcome. Craig Brown’s biography, Voyage Around The Queen, this year offered a damning verdict. Brown wrote the Queen had found Trump “very rude”.

“She particularly disliked the way he couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting,” he wrote.

Trump angrily dismissed the claim as “totally false” – and branded the author a “sleaze bag”.

“She liked me, and I liked her,” he told The Daily Mail. “We spent hours together at a state dinner. She was a fantastic woman. In fact, I’ve heard always the opposite. I heard I was her favourite president, and you’ve heard that, too. She would say it to a lot of people.”

The view from the palace, according to diplomatic sources, was that the Trumps were impeccably behaved that night. And he was uncharacteristically deferential to his hosts.

Maybe the British have cottoned on to this already, sending Prince William, the 42-year-old heir to the throne, to meet Trump at the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Trump’s comments afterwards left little doubt that the president-elect savours exposure to royals of any age.

Trump was greatly impressed by Prince William during their meeting at the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral.Credit: AP

“I had a great talk with the prince,” Trump told the New York Post. “He’s a good-looking guy. He looked really, very handsome last night. Some people look better in person. He looked great. He looked really nice, and I told him that.”

But can Charles actually shift Trump on the big issues? Kim Darroch, the UK ambassador to Washington who was effectively sacked during Trump’s first term after his forthright views recorded in classified cables were leaked, isn’t sure.

“It’s a useful piece of soft power, but up to a point,” he told The New York Times. “I’m not sure you’re going to get any big concessions from him because he likes the royal family.”

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