Queen Elizabeth Found Donald Trump to Be ‘Very Rude,’ New Book Claims

Queen Elizabeth found former President Donald Trump to be “very rude,” a new book claims.

In the upcoming biography A Voyage Around the Queen, which will be published on Aug. 29 in the U.K. and Oct. 1 in the U.S., Craig Brown writes that Queen Elizabeth was put off by the way Trump acted towards her when they met. Trump, 78, was hosted by the Queen in the U.K. twice during his presidency: once for a working trip in July 2018 and again for a state visit in June 2019. The two also connected at the NATO 70th anniversary reception at Buckingham Palace in December 2019.

“A few weeks after President Trump’s visit, for instance, she confided in one lunch guest that she found him ‘very rude’: she particularly disliked the way he couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting,” Brown wrote in A Voyage Around the Queen, according to an excerpt serialized in the Daily Mail on Aug. 19.

“She also believed President Trump ‘must have some sort of arrangement’ with his wife Melania, or else why would she have remained married to him?” Brown wrote.

Trump, for his part, thought the visit went well, Brown wrote, and was confident that he was the monarch’s favorite guest ever. “There are those that say they have never seen the Queen have a better time, a more animated time,” Trump told Fox News, as recounted in the book.

Queen Elizabeth met with 13 of the 14 American presidents who served during her historic 70-year reign before her death in September 2022, and Trump’s first visit to see her was shrouded in controversy. He was first invited for a state visit after being sworn into office, but the official state trip was repeatedly delayed amid speculation that the delay was due to worries over the protests he might face, The New York Times reported at the time. In addition to other controversies surrounding his relationship with Britain, Trump sparked backlash in June 2017 after he criticized London’s mayor in the wake of a terror attack there.

The Queen met Trump and his wife on July 13, 2018, at Windsor Castle, where the American president made waves by walking in front of the monarch while inspecting the Guard of Honor. Grant Harrold, a former butler for the royal family, told ITV News at the time that allowing the Queen to lead in every scenario is a top rule in royal protocol.

A year later, Trump had a similar gaffe during the official state visit in June 2019 when he put his hand on Queen Elizabeth’s back during the state banquet at Buckingham Palace. While the royal family’s website guides that there are “no obligatory codes of behavior when meeting the Queen or a member of the royal family,” the traditional forms of etiquette suggested are a neck bow for men and a curtsy for women.

Protests surged through London during both of Trump’s visits. In July 2018, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London to protest the American president in what was dubbed “The Stop Trump March” and a giant “Trump Baby” balloon flew over Parliament Square. People turned out in the thousands again in June 2019, when Trump traveled back across the pond for an official state visit full of pomp and circumstance. The itinerary included a state banquet, a meeting for Trump with Prime Minister Theresa May and a ceremony in Portsmouth to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

The future King Charles and Queen Camilla spent time with the Trumps at several outings during the state visit, where the American president was joined by his adult children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump.

Former White House advisor Fiona Hill previously said that Trump was “awestruck” by Queen Elizabeth and saw meeting her as a sign that he “had made it in life.”

“Going to Buckingham Palace was supposed to be a highlight of his presidency,” Hill wrote in her book There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century, published in 2021, per Insider.

“Meeting Queen Elizabeth II was particularly important to President Trump. He often referred in conversation to his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was originally from Scotland, and her admiration for Queen Elizabeth,” she wrote.

Upon the Queen’s death in 2022, Trump shared condolences on his social media site, Truth Social. In the statement, he wrote that he and Melania would “always cherish our time together with the Queen, and never forget Her Majesty’s generous friendship, great wisdom and wonderful sense of humor.”

“What a grand and beautiful lady she was — there was nobody like her!” Trump wrote in part.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden represented the United States at Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19, 2022.