US President Donald Trump joked that his mom used to have a “crush” on King Charles III when he was a young prince, drawing an awkward chuckle from the British monarch.
The president said that his mother had seen the King as a child on television and used to remark that he was “cute.”
“Any time the Queen was involved in the ceremony or anything, my mother would be glued to the television and she’d say, ‘look Donald, look how beautiful that is,’” he said.
“She really did love the family, but I also remember her saying very clearly, ‘Charles, look young Charles, he’s so cute.’ My mother had a crush on Charles. Can you believe it? I wonder what she’s thinking right now.”
In response, the King laughed and waved his hand, in a somewhat embarrassed manner.
The bizarre remarks came as Trump reflected on the special relationship between the U.S. and the UK, leading him to recall his Scottish mother, Mary Macleod, and her affinity for Britain and the Royal Family.
Macleod was born in the Outer Hebrides, in Scotland, in 1912. She immigrated to America in 1930 and became a naturalized citizen in 1942.
There she met her husband, real estate mogul Fred Trump, and the pair raised five children together in New York City. Donald Trump was the fourth youngest out of the five.
Macleod died in August 2000, at the age of 88.
On Tuesday, in Washington D.C., King Charles and Queen Camilla were officially greeted with a state ceremony by Trump and first lady Melania Trump on the second day of the historic state visit.
The King is also set to give a historic address to Congress, the second time a British monarch has done so after Queen Elizabeth II in 1991.
He is expected to say that while the U.K. and the U.S. have not always agreed on everything, they have “always found ways to come together” amid strains to the “special relationship” from the Iran war.
Source: independent.co.uk