Prince Harry and Meghan launched their boldest challenge to Donald Trump since a lawsuit over Harry’s visa led to warnings the president might try to kick Harry out of America.
Trump last week appeared to undermine the role of European NATO forces, which included Britain, in the Afghanistan War, suggesting “they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
Harry served two tours of Afghanistan, including as co-pilot gunner of an Apache helicopter, killing 25 Taliban fighters and working to support the U.S. Military.
And the prince clapped back in a statement to Newsweek that highlighted the 457 British military personal who died: “Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost. Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace.” Meghan backed up with words and with photos of Harry she posted to Instagram.
Trump later appeared to back down, stating on social media: “The great and very brave soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America. In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors.”
The move appears to reveal a newly confident Harry, willing to take on the U.S. president despite his precarious status in America, where he has been under pressure over his visa in recent years.
Why It Matters
Harry and Meghan took veiled swipes at Trump in 2020 in the run up to that year’s November presidential election but stayed quiet for the 2024 campaign.
No reason was ever given, but one striking difference between the two elections may lie in comments made by Trump in a 2024 GB News interview stating that if Harry lied on his papers they would have to “take appropriate action,” which was widely interpreted as a veiled threat to revoke his U.S. visa.
The fact that Harry is now confident enough to take Trump on so openly and directly may raise eyebrows against the backdrop of ongoing rumors that Harry and Meghan may want to spend more time in Britain if they get police protection.
Prince Harry, Drugs and the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2023 under the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to force the release of Prince Harry’s immigration records, arguing the American people had a right to know whether the prince lied on his papers.
Heritage said Harry’s past use of illegal drugs, including cocaine, cannabis, magic mushrooms and ayahuasca, rendered him inadmissible to the United States. They cited his account of taking the drugs in his book Spare and in court filings dangled the possibility that Harry’s status in America might be at risk. They argued only deception by the prince or favorable treatment by the Department of Homeland Security could have permitted Harry entry to America.
After one hearing, Samuel Dewey, Heritage’s attorney, said: “If he lied, that gets you deported. People are routinely deported for lying on immigration forms.” Legal experts have countered this view, arguing DHS would not normally revoke an already issued visa unless the applicant had been prosecuted for a criminal offense.
Heritage lost the case after the judge sided with the government’s argument that Harry’s right to privacy outweighed the public interest in knowing what, if anything, he wrote on his immigration papers about past drug use.
However, the case meant Trump was asked in 2024 about whether he would intervene should he go on to win that November’s presidential election.
“We’ll have to see,” Trump told GB News that March. “If they know something about the drugs and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”
Nigel Farage, the leader of U.K. right wing political party Reform, was interviewing Trump and asked whether that meant “Harry not staying in America.” The president responded: “Oh I don’t know, you’ll have to tell me.”
Trump, of course, did win the election but Harry and Meghan did not intervene to back Democrat Kamala Harris during campaigning, despite Meghan having praised Harris back in 2020. Once in office, Trump did not in fact intervene to strip Harry of his visa. Again, no official reason was given but some connected the dots to the couple’s decision not to campaign for Harris.
Now though, Harry has become more vocal again.
Prince Harry Steps Up Rhetoric on Trump
Harry and Meghan may have stayed quiet for the 2024 election campaign but the prince has been stepping up his criticisms of Trump since, including during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, in December.
During the skit, Harry pretended he wanted to star as a prince in a Hallmark Christmas movie and suggested Americans were obsessed with monarchy, stating: “I heard you elected a king.”
The joke clearly referenced the “No Kings” protests that have accused Donald Trump of “authoritarian power grabs,” according to the campaign’s website.
Harry’s latest comments based on his own experiences fighting in Afghanistan have gone a significant step further, intervening at a time when Trump was at the center of a major diplomatic dispute with Europe and implicitly accusing him of dishonesty and disrespect.
Harry’s statement in full read: “In 2001, NATO invoked Article 5 for the first—and only—time in history. It meant that every allied nation was obliged to stand with the United States in Afghanistan, in pursuit of our shared security. Allies answered that call.
“I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there. The United Kingdom alone had 457 service personnel killed. Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.
“Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace.”
Separately, Meghan posted pictures to her Instagram of Harry serving in Afghanistan as well as both European and American competitors at Harry’s Invictus Games tournament for wounded veterans, in a clear sign she supported her husband’s intervention.
Some of Harry’s closest friends also put together a video rebuttal to Trump’s remarks through the Casevac Club, an organization Harry has worked with before, back in 2020.
Reasons to Fear Trump’s Revenge
Of course, some Europeans already claim they have been targeted by the Trump administration due to their political views, including five people who campaigned for European laws to regulate American tech companies, a subject close to Harry’s heart.
Former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of Germany’s HateAid, and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index, were all subject to visa bans.
Announcing the move, Marco Rubio wrote on X in December: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”
French president Emmanuel Macron in December accused Washington of “coercion and intimidation” over the move, The Guardian reported.
What People Are Saying
Last week, Nile Gardiner, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, renewed calls to publish Harry’s papers in a post on X: “Could President Trump intervene and order the release of Prince Harry’s immigration records? Definitely yes. This remains a strong possibility.”
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