Donald Trump had a liking for Queen Elizabeth II. A new book sheds a light on what happened, which left the U.S. president in awe of the late monarch.
Susan Page, an American journalist, wrote the tomeThe Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, where a private meeting between the two figures was shared.
In the exchanges between the two, Trump directly asked a loaded question to the Queen when he met her.
"Who was her favourite U.S. president?" he asked, the author penned in the royal tell-all.
However, the Queen stuck to her royal diplomacy code: never criticise a dignitary or take a rigid position in public.
“They were all so good,” she replied with ease. But the U.S. president sought to have a direct answer.
So, he pressed the Queen, bringing up names of past presidents, like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.
As composed the late monarch was, every time the answer was the same, as if it became a pattern: no criticism, therefore, no negative headlines.
But it appears the president was not backing down.
In an attempt to leave her off-balance, Trump asked about British leaders, particularly Winston Churchill.
But the Queen seemingly did not take the bait. She held her art of diplomacy and said, “They were all so good… they worked so hard."
That's where Trump realised, according to Page, he had witnessed a masterclass in diplomacy, admitting in awe, “I couldn’t get her to say a bad thing about anybody. How genius is this?”
As per the book, the POTUS even compared himself to Elizabeth and came to the conclusion, “She was sort of the opposite of me. She didn’t mix it up.”
Not stopping here, Trump raved about the Queen's pristine ruling record, stating, “Everyone was making mistakes around her, but she never made a mistake.”
It's unclear when the meeting between Elizabeth and Trump took place, but it did leave quite an impression on the latter.