Donald Trump Voices Approval Over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Departure from the US
As reported by the BBC, President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he is "happy" Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have left the United States, marking the most pointed American political…
As reported by the BBC, President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he is "happy" Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have left the United States, marking the most pointed American political commentary on the couple's surprise return to Britain after six years in California.
The Presidential Reading
Speaking after a press conference with travel executives, the U.S. president stated plainly, "I was not a fan." He praised his longstanding relationships with the late Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles, describing the monarch as "a great, great guy," before pivoting to the Sussexes. According to the BBC, Trump accused the couple of treating the Royal Family with "great disrespect," adding, "I didn't like it," and going so far as to declare, "If I were the royal family, I would not have taken them back."
Trump's comments carry the weight of a man who has tracked the House of Windsor since childhood—he has cited watching the 1953 coronation with his Scottish-born mother as a formative memory. The intervention lands at a moment when the Duke, 41, and Duchess, 45, are reportedly settling in for "an extended period," with questions over housing and whether British taxpayers will cover their security detail still unanswered.
What the Return Signals
The move back to the UK last week reverses a 2020 departure that already reads as a historical inflection point. Harry and Meghan relinquished their official royal duties before relocating stateside; the half-in, half-out arrangement once floated for them was firmly rejected by Queen Elizabeth II. Now, with Charles on the throne and reconciliation reportedly being pursued in a personal rather than official capacity, the optics have shifted from rupture to reintegration.
For a culture that has spent half a decade framing the Sussexes in American terms, their return recasts them as a European story once more. Trump's verdict, however unsolicited, merely confirms what the tabloids have long implied: that for some observers, the Sussexes remain an unresolved question mark on the royal family tree, not a closed chapter.
The Verdict on Longevity
History offers a useful template. Edward VIII's departure from royal life in 1936 produced decades of exile before partial reconciliation; the Sussexes' version is far milder, but the structural echo is unmistakable. A six-year American interlude, a media apparatus built across two continents, and now a quiet reentry onto British soil—this is not a happy ending but a recalibration. Whether the British public chooses to read it as homecoming or conditional probation will determine whether this chapter ages as triumph or footnote. Much like a transfer deadline-day scramble that rewrites every league table, the Sussex return has redrawn the standings overnight.
