King Charles is not noted for holding many beliefs in common with Donald Trump.
The US President has vowed to reverse climate policies and ramp up fossil-fuel production, adopting the slogan: ‘Drill, baby, drill.’
Our Monarch, by contrast, has been a pioneering environmentalist who warned world leaders in July 2019 that they had only 18 critical months to address climate change and ensure the survival of the human race…
Yet there is a certain matter on which the two heads of state are likely to be of one mind.
Last weekend, the President ruled out deporting Prince Harry from the US.
This week the Heritage Foundation, a Right-wing think-tank, resumed court proceedings in Washington DC to force the publication of the Duke of Sussex‘s visa application.
It wants to find out whether the Prince failed to disclose his historical drug use. Lying or omitting information is considered sufficient grounds to have a visa revoked, though there is no suggestion that Harry has lied.
Charles is not noted for holding many beliefs in common with Donald Trump, yet there is a matter on which the two are likely to be of one mind (Pictured during the US State Visit in 2019)
However, Trump told The New York Post last Friday that he had no interest in throwing Harry out of the country.
‘I don’t want to do that,’ he declared. ‘I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.’
While the King would never comment publicly on his daughter-in-law, the fact that she and Harry will be able to remain in California will come as a relief.
In his first address to the nation as King, Charles said he wished to ‘express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas’.
From what I am told, His Majesty still wishes them well as they establish themselves in the US and is in no rush for them to return to his kingdom.
After the King was diagnosed with cancer last year, Harry offered to help the Royal Family by carrying out engagements if needed.
His offer was not taken up and he was granted only 30 minutes with his father after flying 5,000 miles from Los Angeles to see him before the King travelled to Scotland to recuperate with Queen Camilla.
‘The fact is that Harry and Meghan are a source of strain and worry for His Majesty,’ a royal source tells me. ‘While he is sorry that he does not have a relationship with his grandchildren in America, it is easier for his peace of mind that there’s an ocean between him and Harry.’
Last weekend the President ruled out deporting Prince Harry, pictured with Meghan at the Invictus Games in Vancouver on Monday, from the United States
Trump’s description of Meghan as ‘terrible’ will have caused wry smiles of recognition at the palace.
Harry complained about his father’s attitude towards the former actress on several occasions in his memoir Spare.
He said he was shocked when the King had asked if Meghan wanted ‘to keep on acting’. Harry quotes him as saying: ‘Well, darling boy, you know there’s not enough money to go around.’
Harry writes: ‘I stared. What was he banging on about? He explained. Or tried to. I can’t pay for anyone else. I’m already having to pay for your brother and Catherine.’
Harry said that after he was informed that the late Queen was dying in 2022, the King told him he would be welcome to visit his grandmother at Balmoral but was urged to leave Meghan at home in England, where they were staying at the time.
Harry recalled in Spare: ‘He said I was welcome at Balmoral, but he didn’t want… her. He started to lay out his reason, which was nonsensical, and disrespectful, and I wasn’t having it. Don’t ever speak about my wife that way.
Trump’s description of Meghan as ‘terrible’ will have caused wry smiles of recognition at the palace. Prince William has made his own feelings clear in private about his sister-in-law
‘[Charles] stammered, apologetic, saying he simply didn’t want a lot of people around. No other wives were coming, Kate wasn’t coming, he said, therefore Meg shouldn’t. Then that’s all you needed to say.’
While Prince William has never publicly described Meghan as ‘terrible’, he made his own feelings clear in private about his sister-in-law.
According to Harry, his brother described Meghan as ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’ before a confrontation in 2019 escalated until William ‘grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and… knocked me to the floor’.
Much to discuss when the King has his first meeting with the new US President!
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