Trump’s Praise for King Charles Seen as Jab at Harry and Meghan
At a press conference in Scotland, Donald Trump’s pointed royal praise reignites tensions with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ahead of his September U.K. state visit.
July 29 EST: Donald Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he praised King Charles III and Queen Camilla as “great people” during a joint press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland. It wasn’t just a warm remark. It was a shot across the Atlantic an unsubtle contrast drawn between the monarchy’s senior ranks and its most famous exiles, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
“You could have people that weren’t great people… you could have people that weren’t,” Trump said, pausing just long enough to let the innuendo breathe. The subtext wasn’t just heard it was telegraphed. And for anyone following the long-running cold war between Trump and the Sussexes, it didn’t require translation.
A Calculated Contrast, Not a Slip
Trump has always been acutely aware of his audience, especially when standing on foreign soil. And while he’s often branded as unfiltered, moments like these are anything but off-the-cuff. They are tactical. He wasn’t simply flattering Charles and Camilla; he was reinforcing a worldview his worldview about hierarchy, loyalty, and control.
That worldview has little room for individuals who step outside of institutional power structures, especially if they do so on moral or political grounds. Harry and Meghan’s very public break with royal tradition, their criticism of British institutions, and their embrace of American liberal causes place them squarely on the wrong side of Trump’s ideological line.
History Repeats, but Louder
Trump has played this game before. During his presidency, he famously clashed with Harry and Meghan after they made thinly veiled critiques of his administration. He responded by calling Meghan “nasty,” accusing her of disrespecting the Queen, and labeling Harry “whipped.” These weren’t throwaway insults they were tools. And like most tools Trump employs, they served a purpose: to reinforce a narrative that elevates loyalty and punishes deviation.
In this way, Trump mirrors the playbook of past populist leaders who seek proximity to symbolic institutions of order while rejecting those who challenge them. His praise of the monarchy isn’t reverence for tradition so much as it is admiration for structure and compliance. The late Queen Elizabeth II, for instance, represented in his mind the perfect blend of status and restraint something he has frequently claimed to respect, even as reports suggest she found his demeanor “boorish” during his 2018 visit.
Starmer’s Calculated Silence
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for his part, chose to sidestep the royal commentary entirely, instead fielding Trump’s insults directed at London Mayor Sadiq Khan a more comfortable political battleground. Starmer defended Khan as “a friend” but avoided comment on Trump’s implicit dig at the Sussexes. It was the kind of move that suggests Starmer is keenly aware of both the diplomatic minefield and the political optics. Picking a fight over Harry and Meghan, especially in the middle of recalibrating U.K.-U.S. relations post-Brexit and post-Biden, wasn’t on his agenda.
September’s Visit Now Framed by Division
Trump’s return to the U.K. in September his second official state visit was already shaping up to be a diplomatic balancing act. But Monday’s remarks have complicated the picture. According to People and The Daily Beast, aides within Buckingham Palace are privately uneasy. Hosting a former president who publicly pits one faction of the royal family against another is not the kind of tone the Crown typically welcomes, especially when public trust in the monarchy is still finding its footing after the Queen’s death and amid the ongoing scrutiny of royal finances.
The palace, true to form, has issued no official comment. But insiders say the concern is real. This isn’t just about optics it’s about the tightrope the royal household walks in trying to stay apolitical while the rest of the world insists on politicizing them.
The Politics of Family, and the Family of Politics
The Sussexes, now firmly rooted in the U.S., represent more than a rift in a family. They’ve become stand-ins for deeper political and cultural divides between tradition and change, deference and disruption, privacy and platform. Trump understands this. He uses them as foils because they serve his narrative about the dangers of elite betrayal and media manipulation.
At the same time, Charles and Camilla represent for Trump a kind of steady order he craves and tries to emulate, however performatively. His affection isn’t ideological it’s personal. Charles hasn’t criticized him. Camilla plays the role of consort without controversy. And unlike the Sussexes, the King hasn’t partnered with Oprah or Netflix to share his grievances.
What Trump Is Really Saying
The real message behind Trump’s comment wasn’t just about who’s “great” and who isn’t. It was about allegiance. He’s drawing lines between those who stay inside the tent and those who burn it down. Between those who work with institutions and those who challenge them publicly.
In Trump’s political universe, loyalty is currency. And his words in Edinburgh were a reminder that he will reward those who stay loyal and make examples of those who don’t.
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A political science PhD who jumped the academic ship to cover real-time governance, Olivia is the East Coast's sharpest watchdog. She dissects power plays in Trenton and D.C. without bias or apology.
