King Charles III and have had a rocky relationship with over the years after several incendiary public statements about the royals, but America’s new president-elect has always been positive about the monarchy.

The British royals will be preparing to rekindle their relationship with the leader and can likely expect a state visit during his second term in office.

However, the background to the relationship between the royals and Trump is complicated and stretches back many years which have included controversial public statements about both and Princess Kate.

How Donald Trump Sees the Royals

By the far the simplest aspect of the relationship is the way Trump views the monarchy, which he has repeatedly made clear is uniformly positive.

And this means the British government is highly likely to deploy Charles, William and the royal family to perform the soft-power diplomacy for which they are famous around the world.

“I can tell you that our father and our entire family has tremendous respect for the monarchy,” his son, , recently told the Daily Mail.

“I do think one of the greatest, one of the most beautiful things in the U.K., is actually the monarchy and what it stands for and what it symbolizes, and this family. It’s gorgeous.

“And by the way, the United States loves it. Every single time there’s a royal event, the positive weddings, etc., or in terms of maybe somebody passing, it’s covered on every station.

“We’ve known the king forever,” he continued. “In fact, I was just digging through a photo album not too long ago and I came across a great picture of him literally with my father, I’m probably 6 years old in the lobby of Mar-a-Lago, in the front entrance of Mar-a-Lago, and it’s special.”

How Charles’ Monarchy Views Donald Trump

The more complicated question is how the royals see Trump after a series of past comments, coupled with at least some government policies we know Charles’ monarchy opposes.

On the personal side, Trump suggested he “could have” slept with Princess Diana shortly after she died in a Paris car crash in 1997.

During an interview, radio show host Howard Stern asked: “Why do people think it’s egotistical of you to say you could’ve gotten with Lady Di? You could’ve gotten her, right? You could’ve nailed her.”

Trump replied: “I think I could have.”

And in 2012, her wrote that Princess Kate had “only herself to blame” after being photographed sunbathing topless by a paparazzi photographer on a long lens in the private grounds of a French château.

“Kate Middleton is great,” he posted on X, then known as Twitter, “but she shouldn’t be sunbathing in the nude—only herself to blame.”

“Who wouldn’t take Kate’s picture and make lots of money if she does the nude sunbathing thing,” he continued. “Come on Kate!”

Christopher Andersen wrote in The King: The Life of Charles III: “Trump’s criticism of Kate resulted in what one Clarence House butler referred to as ‘torrents of profanity’ from both Prince Charles and his sons.”

“At every opportunity,” the book continued, “including ‘s wedding reception, Charles took his wealthy and influential American friends aside and gently prodded them for information.

“It was important that he not push too hard or too far; some of the donors to his charities, including those with the deepest pockets, were Trump supporters,” he continued.

“Still, when lent a receptive ear, Charles asked on several occasions how likely it was that President Trump would be impeached.

“‘Trump seems to be detached from reality, doesn’t he?’ he asked a former Washington official who then headed a major U.S. conglomerate. ‘What a ghastly, awful man.'”

On the policy side, Charles is a long standing advocate for climate change action, while Trump is expected to increase fossil fuel production and pull America out of the Paris Climate Accords, Reuters reported.

The king reported opposed the previous British government’s policy of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda for processing and set up The Prince’s Trust, his most successful project, in the hope of helping disadvantaged people in the U.K.’s inner cities.

Trump, by contrast, had one of his most viral moments of the campaign after suggesting Haitians were “eating the dogs” in Springfield, Ohio.

Williams Brown is Regalrumination.com‘s chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly , at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com‘s .

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