When Prince Charles visited the United States in 1981, New York magazine reported that “aides” to the royal family met with Donald Trump to discuss the purchase of a $5 million apartment in his new building, Trump Tower. A palace spokesperson briskly shot down the report, calling it “completely untrue.” No matter. Stories suggesting royal interest in Trump’s properties cropped up frequently during the 1980s and 1990s, generating a lot of publicity for the young developer and his new skyscraper in Manhattan—even as the palace denied them every time.
When Trump was asked about the reports, he couldn’t help but revel in the implication. A decade after the New York magazine story, the New York Post published another “rumor”—one it confessed was “maybe started by the Trump Organization”—that Princess Diana was looking to buy an apartment in Trump Tower.
“That’s true,” Trump said when asked about the story in an interview. He then mused about dating the princess. “She is really hot. She has gained 20-25 pounds, she looks great. There could be a love interest. I’d become King of England. King of England.”
Diana never bought an apartment in Trump Tower, and despite his reported efforts behind the scenes to lure her to one of his parties, Trump never became King of England.
He did become president, and his infatuation with the royals has revived their relevance in global diplomacy. This week, in close coordination with 10 Downing Street, King Charles III visited Trump in Washington for several days of pageantry that included a tour of a White House beehive, an address before Congress, and a state dinner during which gifts were exchanged and jokes cracked about the 250th anniversary of American independence from Great Britain.
There are hopes that the visit will soothe tensions between the two countries. Given Trump’s infatuation with the crown and personal admiration for the current king, the old empire might have a fighting chance. Even after Charles delivered an address to Congress that implicitly refuted some core tenets of Trumpism—there was an ode to limits on executive power, a defense of NATO and Ukraine, a rousing call to protect the natural world—Trump raved about it ahead of the state dinner that night. “He made a great speech,” the president said. “I was very jealous.”
While I watched from the mezzanine as the king spoke before Congress, commending the United States for its system of checks and balances, the White House posted a photo of Trump alongside Charles with the caption: “TWO KINGS.”
It’s a tale as old as empires. A century before American independence, King Charles II spent nearly a decade in exile after his father was deposed and executed in 1649. He fled to the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall and eventually to France and the Spanish Netherlands. But England’s fragile new republic did not hold. In 1660, Charles returned to England to be restored as king.