New Book Reveals Donald Trump’s Surprising Question About King Charles That May Have Saved Canada
Royal biographer Robert Hardman's upcoming biography captures the moment Trump acknowledged that King Charles may be Canada's most unlikely protector.
There are many reasons Donald Trump has not annexed Canada. Geopolitics. Diplomacy. The sheer impracticality of absorbing an entire sovereign nation. But according to a remarkable new account, the most consequential reason may be one that nobody saw coming — a monarch who doesn't even live there.
The revelation emerges from a forthcoming biography of the late Queen Elizabeth II, penned by royal historian Robert Hardman. In the course of his research, Hardman secured a private audience with the U.S. president, during which Trump — known for his bombastic insistence that Canada is essentially America's neglected 52nd roommate — conceded that his long-running annexation fantasy isn't going anywhere. The reason, it turns out, is King Charles. "I suppose the Canadians have got 200 years of history and all that 'Oh, Canada' thing," Trump told Hardman, per The Daily Mail. "You can't deal with that in three and a half years. I guess it's not going to happen!"
The moment of candor arrived when Hardman noted that Trump's relentless annexation rhetoric would make Charles distinctly unhappy. Rather than doubling down, he paused and posed what seemed like a genuine question: "Do they still recognize the King? Or have they stopped that?" When Hardman confirmed that Canadians still very much regard Charles as their head of state, something changed. Hardman later wrote that Trump's deference toward both the late Queen and the reigning monarch was "the closest I had heard to an acknowledgment that, as long as Canada had the King, Mr. Trump was not going to usurp him." The Royal connection, Hardman concluded, had become "the primary reason why he was no longer saber-rattling at Canada."
That is not to say Trump's affection for Canada's political class has warmed in tandem. Having acknowledged the symbolic fortress that Canadian identity represents, he turned his attention to its leadership. "They're nice to my face, and then they say bad things behind my back," he said—a reference to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was caught mocking Trump at a NATO anniversary event in 2019. Canada's politicians, in Trump's estimation, were simply 'terrible.'
It comes as little surprise to those who have long tracked Trump's peculiar fondness for the British Royal Family. For all his disdain for diplomacy, multilateralism, and the so-called 'deep state' of international norms, Trump has consistently made one exception — the monarchy. He has spoken warmly of Charles, was visibly moved by his audience with Queen Elizabeth II during his 2019 state visit, and has repeatedly expressed reverence for the institution, which sits somewhat awkwardly alongside his otherwise wrecking-ball approach to global affairs. That a reigning monarch could give him pause on Canada, then, is less of a surprise.
Which is precisely why the upcoming White House visit carries so much weight. Royal expert Samara Gill, speaking on the Sun Royal Exclusive, did not fumble when talking about what is at stake. "This will be his most important task to date as the King," she said. "We've got the world on a knife's edge at the moment, sort of teetering on World War Three. I'm not trying to be overdramatic here. But yes, Trump is unpredictable — the King is pretty much the only person that he actually listens to."
