Donald Trump’s apparent dig at Prince Harry during his speech at the lavish state banquet hosted for him by the royals did not go down well with Duke and Meghan Markle, it has been claimed. The US President spent two days in the UK this week and was treated to a glittering state banquet held in his honour at Windsor Castle on Wednesday evening.
Mr Trump gave a speech in which he praised the King and his “remarkable son,” the Prince of Wales. But he did not mention the Duke of Sussex, whose relationship with him has not been the best. The US President said: “His Majesty has also raised a remarkable son in His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. Really amazing. We’ve gotten to know you and I think you’re going to have an unbelievable success in future.” Now sources claimed the jolly affair in Windsor between Mr Trump and the royals left the Montecito couple feeling “repulsed” as they watched from afar.
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Journalist Rob Shuter claimed on his Substack that one California source said: “Harry and Meghan can’t believe what they’re seeing.
“The pomp, the handshakes, the compliments — to them, it looks like bowing down to a man who has openly insulted them for years.”
Regarding Mr Trump only mentioning Prince William in his speech, the source said: “It was a dig, no question. Watching the family laugh along felt like betrayal.”
A friend of the Sussexes added: “Harry and Meghan won’t forget this night — or the message it sent.”
Donald Trump and the Sussexes have been in an ongoing feud for a few years.
Their spat began in 2016, before Meghan married into the Royal Family, when she accused the former US President of being “divisive” and “misogynistic” during an interview on The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore.
But it took three years for him to reply to her comments and just before his trip to the UK in 2019, he told The Sun: “I didn’t know she was nasty”. He attempted to dismiss the comment, despite it having been recorded.
In 2020, the then-Republican presidential candidate hit out at Meghan again and said: “I’m not a fan of hers. I wish a lot of luck to Harry; he’s going to need it.”
In 2024, he hinted he could intervene regarding Prince Harry’s US visa “if he lied” about taking drugs in the past – a confession he made in his memoir Spare.
The row sparked after the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-DC-based think tank, submitted freedom of information requests to the US Department of Homeland to release the Duke of Sussex’s immigration records following his revelations.
Harry’s visa documents were released this year but were heavily redacted with his “exact status” still remaining undisclosed.
