Prince William’s meeting with Donald Trump will have been a “painful reminder” for King Charles on who holds the “royal trump card”, according to an expert.
The Prince of Wales went on a last-minute trip to Paris to attend the spectacular reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame Cathedral following a fire that threatened to destroy it. Also at the ceremony was Trump, with the president-elect sitting down afterwards for a meeting with William.
The pair shook hands and greeted one another before Trump gestured to the prince and said: “Good man, this one” and also said William had been doing a “fantastic job”. And royal expert and historian Dr Tessa Dunlop believes Trump certainly seemed taken with the prince who exuded “untouchable confidence”.
The pair met after attending the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral ( Image: Getty Images)
King Charles during the Qatari state visit last week ( Image: UK Press via Getty Images)
She told the Mirror : “All hail the Prince William of Wales, the only man really standing shoulder to shoulder with America’s bolshie new president-elect, Donald Trump, in a wet Paris this weekend. Royal commentators gushed over the dawn of a new special relationship, with the future King sealing the deal perched opposite Trump on the British ambassadors’ golden upholstery.
“Height wasn’t the only in-built advantage that William enjoyed; he exuded the untouchable confidence that comes with future kingship. Unlike Macron and Zelensky, who were subjected to Trump’s ostentatious grandstanding and power pummels, William received a shoulder pat and a paternal compliment – ‘good man, this one’. The American’s casual platitude a tacit acknowledgment that William has something even Trump can’t match – the magic of royalty.
“Observers have commented on the unlikely bromance between a prince who helped decorate a ‘kindness tree’ outside Westminster Abbey on Friday evening and an unrepentant president who wants to drill his way to making America Great Again.
William on a recent training exercise with the Welsh Guards ( Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“But that is to overlook the ubiquitous appeal of William. Unlike his father, King Charles, long associated with a green agenda, William’s brand neatly avoids any one particular passion- project.
“These days, the Prince of Wales effortlessly blends his mother’s charisma with a careful study of the late Queen’s canny constitutional rule. Less is more, especially when the ‘less’ is delivered with a certain aplomb. Trump liked what he saw. The scramble to dispatch William into a helicopter destined for the other side of the Channel was justified. Phew! Starmer’s Britain is still in with a shout. All in all, it was a good weekend.”
However, Tessa says that despite it seeming to be a good weekend for all, she believes there is one person who may have found the meeting tough to watch – the King.
She added: “It must be tough for Charles, a man who waited over seventy years for the big gig, to play second fiddle to his son. Time and again recently, William has grabbed the headlines: in Commando uniform firing a gun, wearing a pinny serving Christmas fare to the homeless, and accompanying his wife Catherine, during the Emir of Qatar ’s state visit. All eyes are always on William and the Waleses.
“Charles’s battle with cancer has not helped, but even the monarch’s illness took second place to the Princess of Waleses’ shock diagnosis. The King, for so long overshadowed by his extraordinary mother, now finds himself outperformed by his eldest son, with William’s weekend jaunt in Paris another painful reminder of who holds royalty’s trump card.”
