Donald Trump angrily rejected a claim from a new biography of the late Elizabeth II that the queen found him "very rude," insisting that he was, in fact, her "favorite president," Politico reports.
According to “Voyage Around The Queen” by Craig Brown, the queen would sometimes privately express disapproval of some controversial world leaders she met on state occasions, including Trump.
"A few weeks after President Trump’s visit, for instance, she confided in one lunch guest that she found him ‘very rude’: she particularly disliked the way he couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting," Brown wrote. The Daily Mail, which serialized the book, also noted Brown's claim that the Queen mused about Trump and his wife Melania, believing that they must have "some sort of arrangement."
Trump and the queen met during the former president's state visit to the United Kingdom in 2018, a trip marred by protests that included a giant blimp depicting him as a baby. Trump, who has lavished praise on the queen in the past, dismissed Brown's claims as "totally false" and called the author a "sleaze bag."
“I have no idea who the writer is, but it was really just the opposite. I had a great relationship with the queen. She liked me and I liked her," he told the Daily Mail, adding that "I heard I was her favorite president, and you’ve heard that too. She would say it to a lot of people."
As an embodiment of the state, the queen did not typically reveal her personal views in the public sphere, leaving tabloids to engage in cycles of speculation. True to form, the Palace did not respond to the Daily Mail for comment.
