![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEC_266492717-0bc5.jpg\")
\n\t\tPrincess Diana is still a background figure in the relationship between Donald Trump and Buckingham Palace according to a royal commentator (Picture: Kate Ingham, Metro\/Getty\/AP)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tPrincess Diana is still a background figure in the relationship between Donald Trump and Buckingham Palace according to a royal commentator (Picture: Kate Ingham, Metro\/Getty\/AP)<\/p>\n
While\u00a0King Charles<\/a> gives his customary gracious welcome to Donald Trump<\/a> today, one subject will be strictly off bounds. <\/p>\n The US<\/a> president, who is being regaled with the red carpet treatment at Windsor Castle on his unprecedented second state visit to the UK,<\/a> has previously been accused of giving Princess Diana<\/a> \u2018the creeps\u2019, and using the British royals<\/a> to aggrandise his property interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 1994, Trump said that the then Prince Charles and his first wife had applied to join his showy Mar-a-Lago resort club in Florida<\/a> and had each submitted $500,000 (\u00a3367,000) membership cheques. \u00a0<\/p>\n Follow rolling coverage of Donald Trump\u2019s state visit on Metro\u2019s live blog<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The real estate developer was quoted in the New York Times as saying, \u2018I handled the applications myself,\u2019 as it seemed the royal couple had become fixtures at the playground for the rich and famous, where sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> was among the guests.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tSign up for all of the latest stories\t\t\t<\/p>\n Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/a><\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News<\/a> <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n Newly-married Charles and Diana were also rumoured to be buying an apartment at the Trump Tower in New York, bringing royal star power to the brand in the years when it suffered a string of bankruptcies. <\/p>\n The membership claim drew a strong rebuttal from Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s complete nonsense,\u2019\u00a0a spokesperson said at the time. <\/p>\n \u2018They have not joined the club.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t Trump, who was trying to get Mar-a-Lago off the ground after turning the sprawling residence into a private club, would later clarify that \u2018I wrote to them both offering honorary memberships\u2019 but had not heard back. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Prince Charles\u00a0has been to Mar-a-Lago, and I know he likes it,\u2019 he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n Charles politely declined the offer, writing back to say Trump could instead donate to one of his environmental causes, <\/a>according to the BBC.<\/p>\n In fact, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, stories linking the British royal couple to Trump properties emerged in New York and US tabloids before swirling in media titles around the world. \u00a0<\/p>\n In one of the most eyebrow-raising moments in the trio\u2019s relationship, the tycoon is alleged to have pursued Diana in 1994, two years after her separation from Charles was announced.<\/p>\n Diana said \u2018he gives me the creeps\u2019 after Trump bombarded her with flowers, according to an account by broadcaster Selina Scott. \u00a0<\/p>\n As the lavish reception for the president and First Lady Melania gets underway, his questionable track record in respect of Charles and Diana\u00a0will not have been forgotten, according to a royal commentator.<\/p>\n \t\t \u2018The unique second state visit for an American, which begins today with spectacular pomp and pageantry, is pivotal for the transatlantic relationship,\u2019 Richard Fitzwilliams said. <\/p>\n \u2018Areas such as trade, security, AI and energy are high on the agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018One of Donald Trump\u2019s few consistent qualities has been his admiration for the British royal family. His mother, Mary, was a devoted monarchist.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Yet whilst projecting soft power as their role demands, the royal family will be uncomfortably aware that, according to multiple biographies of Trump, he has used rumours linking his properties with senior royals for his own benefit.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t The New York Times later corrected their story about Charles and Diana becoming members of the exclusive club in Palm Beach. \u00a0<\/p>\n Rumours about the princess seeking to buy a $5 million property in the Trump Tower at around the same time also came to nothing. \u00a0<\/p>\n A relationship nevertheless existed, with Prince Charles having visited Mar-a-Lago in March 1988, where he attended a cocktail party before moving on to a ranch owned by polo players Geoffrey and Jorie Kent. <\/p>\n The power-hungry tycoon and British royal have met repeatedly over the years, including during Trump\u2019s last state visit in 2019. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\tWhat did Diana say about Trump? \t\t\t<\/p>\n Trump saw Diana as the \u2018ultimate trophy wife\u2019, according to broadcaster Selina Scott, who was friends with the princess.<\/p>\n Scott recalled sitting next to Diana at a private dinner where she spoke about roses and orchards the property mogul had sent her.<\/p>\n Diana asked \u2018what do I do?\u2019 and confided \u2018he gives me the creeps,\u2019 according to the journalist.<\/p>\n Scott advised her to throw the flowers in the bin, according to her account in The Times. <\/a><\/p>\n However, the rumours about the royals spending big to be part of the Trump world, which came after various businesses in the family name went bankrupt starting in 1991,\u00a0were a red line for the Palace.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018These rumours, all denied by Buckingham Palace, often got enormous publicity which was beneficial to Trump, \u2019 Fitzwilliams said. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018In his 1997 book, Art of the Comeback, Trump said he had only one regret \u201cin the women department\u201d: that he had not had the opportunity to court Diana.\u00a0The broadcaster Selina Scott claimed he sent bouquets of flowers to the princess at Kensington Palace. She reportedly said he gave her \u201cthe creeps\u201d, and his advances got nowhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t \u2018Such is the tide in the affairs of men that it is Trump, the most powerful man in the world, who holds the trump cards on this visit. <\/p>\n \u2018However, the royal family will not have forgotten that he involved them in his dubious past history.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump revisited the Mar-a-Lago rumour in 1995, telling the New York Post: \u2018I didn\u2019t say they signed. I said they were members.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Laurence Leamer, the best-selling American author and journalist,\u00a0has studied the Palm Beach set through his book, Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump\u2019s Presidential Palace. <\/p>\n Leamer\u2019s insights go some way to revealing why Sir Keir Starmer made such a spectacle of inviting Trump to Windsor Castle \u2014 and why it may be Charles who has his fullest attention this week. <\/p>\n \t\t \u2018Charles and Diana didn\u2019t pay to go to Mar-a-Lago, it was just one of the places they visited,\u2019 he told Metro. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018Trump loves royalty, because that is what he would like to be, he\u2019d like to be a democratic king, so obviously he is enthralled with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018He\u2019s turning our classic White House into a palace fit for a king, not a president. Who wants to waste your time on a lousy prime minister when you can be\u00a0with the king?\u2019<\/p>\n Leamer told Metro that, given the president\u2019s track record with the palace, the scenes he is being treated to behind a huge security cordon represent an astonishing turnaround. <\/p>\n \t\t \u2018He\u2019s the luckiest man who ever lived,\u2019 the author said. <\/p>\n \u2018If anyone else did what he dared to do, they\u2019d be in prison or they\u2019d be disgraced. He\u2019s an amazing person, he just gets back up no matter what happens. He\u2019s a formidable speaker, he\u2019s mastered a new idiom. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018He doesn\u2019t have the presidential gravitas, but with almost half the\u00a0American people, he\u2019s it.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>\n So what is Trump really after as he soaks up the reception in Windsor before moving on to meet the prime minister at his\u00a0Chequers grace-and-favour retreat in Buckinghamshire?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s all about him getting all of the attention,\u2019 Leamer said. <\/p>\n \u2018He\u2019s the ultimate\u00a0narcissist and again, he\u2019s the would-be king. <\/p>\n \u2018The king of the world, that how he looks at things.\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>\n Metro has approached the White House for comment. \u00a0<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_266492552-3c8b.jpg\")
\n\t\tPrince Charles (left) talks with Donald Trump and his wife Melania during a reception at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"King](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_266492352-7693.jpg\")
\n\t\tKing Charles III and Donald Trump review the guard of honour during the ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle (Picture: Jonathan Brady\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n![\"Diana](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_209479861-5cd8-e1758112507296.jpg\")
\n\t\tPrincess Diana was allegedly bombarded with flowers by Donald Trump after her split from Prince Charles (Picture: Antony Jones\/UK Press via Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"PALM](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_264350856-0d5c.jpg\")
\n\t\tDonald Trump speaks during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2024 when he was the Republican presidential candidate (Picture: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_266494307-5ba9.jpg\")
\n\t\tDonald Trump reviews the guard of honour after the arrival at Windsor Castle on September 17, 2025 (Picture: Kirsty Wigglesworth\/Pool via Reuters)<\/p>\n![\"King](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_266490888-90e2.jpg\")
\n\t\tKing Charles III and US President Donald Trump during the carriage procession to Windsor Castle in Berkshire (Picture: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n
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