Royal experts accuse Trump of living in ‘fantasy world’ after comments about the Queen

Donald Trump has bragged that the Queen ‘had never had such a good time’ than when he was sitting next to him at a state banquet – but experts today suggested he was ‘living in a fantasy world’.

Mr Trump said the 96-year-old monarch was ‘laughing and smiling’ throughout the event at Buckingham Palace in June 2019, which he attended with his wife, Melania, and his older children. The ex-US president, who was speaking to Piers Morgan for his new show said he had a ‘great time’ at the event. 

He continued: ‘And I sat next to her and we talked the whole night. And somebody said, we’ve never seen her smile so much. We had a great time. She was laughing and smiling. They said they’ve never seen her have such a good time at a state dinner. You know, normally they’re a little boring. Okay, this wasn’t boring.’ 

Meanwhile, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told MailOnline that Mr Trump had misunderstood the Queen’s outward behavior – which has been honed over decades – as representing her genuine feelings towards him. 

Body language expert Judi James agreed, describing the monarch as ‘a professional body language masker’ whose smile was a ‘trained social response’. She said the monarch’s expression ‘changed dramatically’ when she looked away from Trump, with ‘her raised shoulders hinting at impatience’.

Analyzing this image, Ms James said: ‘When we see the Queen walking ahead of the group her face is no longer visible to Trump and her expression changes dramatically. Her raised shoulders hint at impatience, her lips are tense and her eyes appear to be glaring’

He continued: ‘Her task was to make him feel at ease and he obviously did. He enjoyed both visits, which was important for Britain. This was largely due to the way the Queen handled things, it would be fascinating to know what she thought of him but we never will.’

Meanwhile, Judi James said a closer assessment of the monarch’s body language would have seen Mr Trump take a different view of their relationship. She told MailOnline: ‘During the banquet we can see several signals of agreeability, like the way both heads are tilted towards one another to suggest co-conspirators and the Queen’s smile does look convincing, although the subtler cues are less convincing.’

‘Firstly she is not using eye contact here even though Trump is using an intense eye-gaze as he speaks. Then there is what appears to be muscle tension in her upper lip, which is stretched and tight-looking, hinting at an over-held smile. There is crinkling around her outer eye to create a convincing eye-smile but although her cheeks are slightly rounded they aren’t raised in the kind of apple-cheek shape that usually defines genuine laughter.’

‘When we see the Queen walking ahead of the group her face is no longer visible to Trump and her expression changes dramatically. Her raised shoulders hint at impatience, her lips are tense and her eyes appear to be glaring.’

‘Like Melania, the Queen might have adopted a ”looking at Trump” face and a ”looking away” face with what appears to be quite a dramatic difference between the two expressions.’ 

Elsewhere in the Talk TV interview, Mr Trump blasted Prince Harry’s ‘terrible’ choice to miss his grandfather Prince Philip’s memorial service and said the Duke of Sussex is ‘whipped like no person I think I’ve ever seen’. Pictured: Mr Trump and the Queen together before the banquet. Donald Jr is shown behind Prince Charles and Prince Michael of Kent can be seen standing in the background.

The ex-US president said it was the ‘worst’ decision Harry had made, blasted him for being ‘so disrespectful’ and an ’embarrassment’ – and urged the Queen to strip the Duke and his wife Meghan Markle of all their royal titles. Mr Trump added that the Queen should ban Harry from even visiting her in Britain and tell him: ‘Frankly, don’t come around.’ 

He also said Harry had been ‘led down a path’ and that he wondered whether the Duke – who stepped down as a senior royal in early 2020 with his American wife – would ‘go back on his hands and knees and say ‘please’.’ 

And the 75-year-old claimed he is ‘not a fan’ of Meghan and ‘wasn’t right from the beginning’, telling Mr Morgan: ‘I’ve been a very good predictor, as you know – I’ve predicted almost everything. It’ll end, and it’ll end bad.’