Donald Trump said he was happy Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the U.S. for Britain, giving a blunt Trump opinion on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during an Oval Office meeting with U.S. travel executives. He added that he would not have taken them back.
“I was happy about it. I was not a fan,” Trump said when asked about their move. He also said, “I thought they treated the royal family with great disrespect.”
Oval Office remarks
Trump expanded on his view in the Oval Office, saying, “I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the way she acted. I thought she was terribly disrespectful to the Queen and to King Charles. I don’t know. Maybe I’m different. I wouldn’t have taken them back.” The comments were the latest in a line of public remarks he has made about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
The couple moved to the U.S. in 2020 and bought a private house in Montecito in Santa Barbara County. They later returned to the UK six years after stepping away from senior royal duties, a timeline that puts Trump’s reaction against a move that had already taken them from Britain to California and back again.
Trump and Meghan Markle
Trump’s criticism was not new. In 2019, he told The Sun, “I didn’t know that she was nasty.” He later said U.S. taxpayers should not foot the bill for the couple’s private security.
Last year, when asked about Harry’s plea for the U.S. to end the Ukraine war, Trump said, “Prince Harry? How’s he doing? How’s his wife?” He followed that with, “Please give her my regards.”
Britain and King Charles
The move also follows reporting that a friend of King Charles III said Harry was “informally encouraged by King Charles to return to the UK because the king believes that the royal family is stronger united.” That account points to a family dynamic running alongside Trump’s public criticism, with the couple’s status still tied to both Britain and Montecito in Santa Barbara County.
For now, Trump’s remarks leave the most immediate takeaway in plain view: he welcomed their departure from the U.S. and made Meghan Markle the sharpest target of his criticism, while the couple’s longer-term home remains the open question.
