'He truly adored her': US President Donald Trump gets emotional over Queen Elizabeth and King Charles in newly resurfaced video
The footage, originally posted to social media in November as part of Trump's Art of the Surge documentary, shows the 79-year-old leafing through a personal photo album on board a private jet.
The video was captioned in part, "You can see that he [Trump] truly adored her [the Queen]".
"Now this is with Queen Elizabeth, who was fantastic by the way," he said, pointing to an image captured during his first UK state visit in June 2019.
"Who has images like this?" Trump added about himself.
"And these are real relationships too."
He then paused on a photo featuring King Charles (then the Prince of Wales) standing beside a ceremonial guard.
"Look, he is now the King, here's Charles with the guard," Trump said, before shifting back to the late monarch.
"And this is the Queen. Queen Elizabeth. These are pieces of history at the highest level."
He takes a moment to reflect before quietly adding: "So beautiful."
The video continues with Trump praising the entire royal family, including Queen Camilla and Charles, noting, "Hopefully he (Charles) is going to be well, because he's a really good person."
Interestingly, the remark was made just months before the King publicly revealed a cancer diagnosis, following treatment for an enlarged prostate.
"Camilla is fantastic too," Trump said.
"I mean, you get to know them so well."
In another image, Trump is seen in conversation with Queen Elizabeth during a state banquet.
"Here's your favourite president with the Queen. She was unbelievable. We had a very good relationship. Really good," he said.
It's not the first time the former president has publicly expressed admiration for the late monarch.
After her death in September 2022, Trump wrote that he and his wife Melania would "always cherish our time together with the Queen, and never forget Her Majesty's generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humour.
"What a grand and beautiful lady she was- there was nobody like her!" he added.
"Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the great people of the United Kingdom as you honour her most meaningful life and exceptional service to the people. May God bless the Queen, may she reign forever in our hearts, and may God hold her and Prince Philip in abiding care."
However, author Craig Brown's recent royal biography A Voyage Around The Queen paints a less rosy picture, claiming the late monarch found Trump to be "very rude" during his visits to the UK in 2018 and 2019.
Trump dismissed the suggestion during a campaign rally last year.
"I have no idea who the writer is, but it was really just the opposite," he said of Brown.
"I had a great relationship with the Queen. She liked me, and I liked her."
Since resurfacing online, the video has sparked widespread commentary, with Trump supporters praising his tribute to the Queen and the British monarchy.
Britain loves the US. I love the respect he showed to our queen & history," one fan wrote.
Another added: "Can't wait for you to come in September to GB. Royal Windsor will give you a huge hug! GB loves you Mr President. It wasn't just our beautiful queen. It was also her people."
Others were more sceptical, with one user claiming the King "hates Trump's guts".
"These pictures are just standard diplomatic photos; hundreds of them exist with hundreds of other leaders over the years," they said.
Another wrote: 'He (Trump)'s crying over his own ego tbh."
According to The Daily Beast, one person watching the growing hype with some trepidation is King Charles himself.
A palace insider told the outlet on Monday His Majesty is worried Trump "could upend protocol and make politicised comments when delivering a traditional speech at his state banquet."
Concerns have reportedly been growing since Trump's recent comments about Canada, a Commonwealth realm where Charles is the head of state, referring to it as "the 51st state".
But they've intensified after a string of inflammatory comments made by the president during his current five-day visit to Scotland.
"On immigration, you'd better get your act together. You're not going to have Europe anymore," Trump told reporters on Friday.
The insider added the 76-year-old monarch "will be very concerned about the possibility of a repeat of Trump's outburst [when he visits] in September."
The state visit, expected to go ahead on September 17-19, will mark the first time any elected political leader has been invited back for a second royal reception.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
41 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
One of the world's most beautiful art deco hotels is not where you'd expect
Shanghai may be a modern metropolis, but deep in its architectural soul it will always be an art deco city. In the 1920s and '30s, thousands of apartment buildings, offices, hotels, cinemas, clubs, department stores and civic buildings were built in what was then known as the 'modern style', part of a movement towards modernisation reflected in everything from transport to fashion, graphic design and furniture. Despite the rapid development of the past three decades, many of them are still standing. Art deco's distinctive ziggurats, speed lines and curves are everywhere. 'You just have to look up,' says Tina Kanagaratnam, co-founder of Historic Shanghai, a group devoted to recording and celebrating Shanghai's unique history. One of the most famous of all these buildings is the Peace Hotel. Commissioned by British tycoon Victor Sassoon and completed in 1929, the hotel was promoted as the most luxurious hotel in the east. As well as exquisite furnishings and interior design, it also had such radical innovations as indoor plumbing, air-conditioning and a sprung floor for dancing. The hotel lived up to the hype, immediately becoming the place to stay or be seen in Shanghai. Its jazz club was said to be the social hub of the city. Kanagaratnam takes me on an impromptu tour, pointing out some of the easily missed original stained-glass windows. In one of them you can make out the word 'Cathay', the original name of the hotel from the old European word for China. The level of detail in this space alone is extraordinary, from the sculptures and artworks reflecting the free-flowing fashion of the day to elaborate staircases and decorative ironwork, tiles and marble. It's also home to coffee shop Victor's and the Jasmine Lounge, where you can book in for afternoon tea and dine on delicate cakes and sandwiches while a pianist plays on the hotel's original Steinway. The Old Jazz Bar, behind a timber door with a grill, is an atmospheric space with a long timber bar, small stage, and clothed tables. Every night, anyone can sip a cocktail and listen to the band and guest singers. After our walk around the hotel and the local neighbourhood, where we spot many other deco masterpieces, Kanagaratnam leaves me to check in. I've been staying in the hotel equivalent of a musty cupboard for three nights and the cost of my one night in the cheapest available room at the Peace Hotel ($564) is almost double those three nights combined, so I'm determined to make the most of it. Tonight, I'll be sleeping in a building once graced by Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich and, more recently, Richard Nixon, Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau. They each stayed in one of the hotel's nine original Nation Suites, and it's easy to imagine them at home in these elaborately decorated, glamorous spaces. My room is merely the standard level of uber luxury – in art deco style yet thoroughly modernised with an enormous bathroom, coffee station, walk-in closet and the elegance, light and high ceilings the era was famous for.
Sydney Morning Herald
41 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Low on the priority list': Trump administration in no rush to appoint ambassador
US President Donald Trump has shown no sign of appointing an ambassador to Canberra despite doing so for more than 50 other countries, fuelling accusations Australia is a low diplomatic priority as Trump weighs decisions on tariff rates and the future of the AUKUS defence pact. The federal opposition has intensified its criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not securing a meeting with Trump this week after the president said he planned to increase his baseline tariff rate from 10 per cent to as much as 20 per cent. The Trump administration has announced ambassadorial nominees for at least 52 countries, including Malta, Tunisia, the Bahamas, Latvia, Namibia and New Zealand. The US Senate has approved Trump's nominees for ambassadors to China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Israel, Britain, Ireland, Turkey and Panama, allowing those diplomats to take up their posts at embassies in their host countries. Michael Green, chief executive of the University of Sydney's United States Studies Centre, said that Canberra remained a 'coveted posting' in Washington, with high-profile former members of Congress and Republican donors lobbying to be appointed to the position. 'Trump is making them work for it and is not rushing to decide,' said Green, who served as a senior official in George W. Bush's administration. Michael Shoebridge, who served as a senior defence policy official at the Australian embassy in Washington, said the lack of an ambassadorial appointment was part of a 'disturbing pattern' of a lack of engagement between the Albanese government and Trump administration, including the lack of a leaders' meeting. 'We are clearly low down their priority list,' said Shoebridge, a director at the Strategic Analysis Australia think tank.
The Age
41 minutes ago
- The Age
‘Low on the priority list': Trump administration in no rush to appoint ambassador
US President Donald Trump has shown no sign of appointing an ambassador to Canberra despite doing so for more than 50 other countries, fuelling accusations Australia is a low diplomatic priority as Trump weighs decisions on tariff rates and the future of the AUKUS defence pact. The federal opposition has intensified its criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not securing a meeting with Trump this week after the president said he planned to increase his baseline tariff rate from 10 per cent to as much as 20 per cent. The Trump administration has announced ambassadorial nominees for at least 52 countries, including Malta, Tunisia, the Bahamas, Latvia, Namibia and New Zealand. The US Senate has approved Trump's nominees for ambassadors to China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Israel, Britain, Ireland, Turkey and Panama, allowing those diplomats to take up their posts at embassies in their host countries. Michael Green, chief executive of the University of Sydney's United States Studies Centre, said that Canberra remained a 'coveted posting' in Washington, with high-profile former members of Congress and Republican donors lobbying to be appointed to the position. 'Trump is making them work for it and is not rushing to decide,' said Green, who served as a senior official in George W. Bush's administration. Michael Shoebridge, who served as a senior defence policy official at the Australian embassy in Washington, said the lack of an ambassadorial appointment was part of a 'disturbing pattern' of a lack of engagement between the Albanese government and Trump administration, including the lack of a leaders' meeting. 'We are clearly low down their priority list,' said Shoebridge, a director at the Strategic Analysis Australia think tank.
