Donald Trump told the Daily Express U.S. at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference that if he wins the 2024 election he provide no security to Prince Harry and Meghan.
“I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me.”
It’s unclear what specific offense against the late Queen Elizabeth II that Trump has taken issue with, beyond Harry choosing to leave behind the traditional duties that come with being part of the royal family. The queen’s own 2018 and 2019 meetings with Trump were described as “unusual” and his presence sparked protests throughout England.
Trump’s comments were made to the outlet while he attended CPAC on Saturday and Sunday. They came after Prince Harry appeared in court on Friday as part of a lawsuit brought against the Department of Homeland Security by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. The organization has attempted to seize Harry’s immigration records to determine if he lied about past drug use while applying for a U.S. visa.
Harry and Meghan moved to the United States together in March 2020. Harry was open about past drug use — including cocaine, marijuana, and psychedelic mushrooms — in his 2023 memoir “Spare.”
On Sunday, MSNBC’s Jen Psaki openly questioned Trump’s mental fortitude after he delivered several bizarre, confusing speeches, including one at CPAC.
Trump has regularly attempted to stir the Sussex pot. In an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” in September, he described Markle as “disrespectful’ and said, “I didn’t like the way she dealt with the queen. They treated her with great disrespect and I didn’t like it.”
In the same interview, Trump added that he would “love to” debate Markle and added, “I didn’t like the idea that they were getting U.S. security when they came over here.”
In January 2020, Queen Elizabeth’s private secretary Sir Edward Young wrote a letter to U.K. Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill in which the monarch insisted Harry, Meghan, and their children receive security after they stepped down from royal duties.
The letter read in part, “You will understand well that ensuring that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain safe is of paramount importance to Her Majesty and her family.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign cycle, Markle described Trump as “divisive” and “misogynistic.”
Trump said he found her comments to be “nasty,” but added, “I wasn’t referring to, she’s nasty. I said she was nasty about me. And essentially I didn’t know she was nasty about me. She was nasty to me. And that’s OK for her to be nasty, it’s not good for me to be nasty to her and I wasn’t.”
