Trump’s fraught history with Britain’s royals ahead of second state visit

President Donald Trump arrives in the United Kingdom this week for a state visit — scheduled Sept. 17–19 — that will mark the first time a U.S. president has been granted a formal second state visit. The trip comes against the backdrop of a long, sometimes contentious relationship between Trump and members of the British royal family.

The relationship has included disputed media reports, private exchanges and public rebukes that have repeatedly drawn attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Historically, U.S. presidents who have previously been hosted by a monarch on an official visit have been accorded less elaborate ceremonial honours on any subsequent trips; the decision to stage a second full state visit is therefore notable.

Trump’s contacts with the royal family date back decades. In the early 1980s, news outlets reported that then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana were considering purchasing an apartment in Trump Tower; Buckingham Palace denied the reports. Multiple biographers and contemporaneous accounts later said the rumours helped publicise Trump’s new development and may have been circulated by his organisation. Trump acknowledged in his 1987 book The Art of the Deal that he had declined to deny the rumours, saying the lack of denial had generated publicity.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, episodes further complicated relations. After the separation of Charles and Diana, Trump made public remarks praising Diana and later acknowledged in other writings that he regretted not having courted her. British journalist accounts said Diana found some of his attention unwelcome. In 2012, after topless photographs of Catherine, Princess of Wales, were published by a French magazine, Trump publicly blamed her for the incident; the duchess and her husband later won damages from the publisher.

Trump first met Queen Elizabeth II during a visit in 2018, when he and the first lady had tea with the monarch at Windsor Castle. The following year he was accorded formal state-visit honours including a Buckingham Palace banquet. Those occasions prompted criticism from protocol experts after footage showed Trump briefly walking ahead of the monarch during an inspection of a guard of honour and subsequently placing a hand on the queen’s back at a banquet. A 2024 biography by author Craig Brown reported an unidentified source saying the queen had privately described Trump as "very rude," a claim the former president disputed.

Trump and members of the younger generation of royals have had a mixed public relationship. He has publicly praised Prince William on several occasions, most recently after a meeting in Paris in December 2024 that Kensington Palace said included a discussion of the U.K.-U.S. relationship and global issues. By contrast, his public comments about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been critical. Ahead of the 2024 U.S. election cycle he said he would not "protect" Harry in relation to an immigration dispute and later told the New York Post he would not deport the duke, adding that Harry had "enough problems with his wife" and calling Markle "terrible." Markle had earlier described Trump as "misogynistic" during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Trump and his team have also maintained private correspondence with the royal household. In her 2024 memoir, the first lady, Melania Trump, said she and King Charles had become "pen pals" after meeting in 2019 and that she had exchanged letters with him. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, Trump issued a public tribute praising her longevity and leadership.

Relations between the two leaders were also tested by violence against the former president. Buckingham Palace said King Charles sent a private message via the U.K. embassy in Washington after an attack on Trump in 2024 in which a shooter fired toward the podium where the former president was speaking; authorities said a bystander was killed and the alleged gunman was shot by U.S. law enforcement. The palace did not disclose the contents of the message.

The state visit comes at a time when ceremonial protocol and diplomatic signalling remain important markers of the U.K.-U.S. relationship. State visits are formal expressions of bilateral warmth and are organised with the concurrence of both governments and the sovereign. British officials have said the visit will include customary ceremonial elements at Windsor Castle and engagements intended to underline the long-standing alliance between the two countries.

Royal-watchers and protocol experts have noted the symbolic weight of the visit given Trump’s unconventional style and prior lapses in royal etiquette. Palace aides have not publicly commented on private assessments of the president. Trump has repeatedly defended past meetings with the late queen and has described interactions with senior royals in positive terms.

As the visit proceeds, diplomats and commentators will be watching how public ceremonies, private meetings and media coverage balance tradition and the complexities of a relationship that has alternated between cordiality and controversy for more than four decades.