March 24, 2026, 3:00 a.m. ET
Queen Elizabeth II was dismayed by the flattening of her flowers in the garden at Buckingham Palace when President Trump arrived in 2019 aboard Marine One.
But his state visit there was a highlight of Trump’s first term and valuable for Great Britain, building a relationship with the controversial U.S. president. Weeks later, the Queen tapped that relationship to smooth a diplomatic contretemps.
Here are five takeaways from USA TODAY’s excerpt of a new book, “The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History,” by Susan Page. Published by Harper, it explores the Queen’s relationship with a string of U.S. presidents, from the time she was a nervous young princess visiting President Harry Truman to the final state dinner of her seven-decade reign, in honor of Trump.
1. ‘It ruined the garden’
The president and first lady Melania Trump arrived at Buckingham Palace on June 3, 2019, aboard Marine One.
From the palace steps, Her Majesty watched with horror as the whirlwind of the helicopter’s blades flattened her flowers and left divots on the lawn. “She was furious about that,” a senior palace aide said.
When Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived later, she was still steaming. “Come and look at my lawn,” she told him. “It’s ruined.”
2. Quizzing the Queen
In their lively conversation at the gilded state dinner that night, Trump tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the Queen to dish about the 14 other U.S. presidents she had met, 12 of them while in office.
“I said, ‘So could I ask you who was your favorite president?'” he said.
She replied, “Why? They were all so good.”
He was dazzled by her skill at charming deflection. “I couldn’t get her to say a bad thing about anybody.”
3. What about Harry and Meghan?
Her discretion included Prince Harry and Meghan, her wayward grandson and his controversial bride. Seven months later, they announced they would step back from their duties as senior royals.
No one could have possibly missed the soap-opera saga that surrounded them, but Trump was almost certainly one of very few guests who raised the topic directly with Elizabeth.
“I asked her about it constantly,” Trump said. “I’d say, ‘Come on, tell me (what you really think).'”
She replied, “No, no. It’s very nice.”
Trump was unpersuaded. “I really think it hurt her,” he said. “I just don’t think they treated her with the respect that she should have, frankly.”
4. A crucial royal phone call
Three weeks after Trump’s triumphant state visit to London, there was trouble.
Devastating assessments of the president, written two years earlier by the British ambassador to the U.S., Kim Darroch, were leaked to Britain’s Mail on Sunday. Trump “radiates insecurity,” Darroch wrote, and was leading a dysfunctional administration.
Trump was livid. Darroch was forced to resign.
Then the Queen called, a conversation not previously reported. “She couldn’t believe it; she thought he was terrible,” Trump said. “She apologized,” he said, then qualified that. “It wasn’t an apology,” exactly.
“She didn’t call (Darroch) a fool, but she basically indicated that he was a stupid person,” Trump said.
Whatever she said, it was enough. The crisis passed.
5. Trump has a theory
The Queen refused to answer the question, but afterwards Trump said he was told by others that she did have a favorite president.
It was him.
“We just got along,” Trump said. His ambassador, Woody Johnson, agreed. “The president has a very keen sense of things like that,” Johnson said.
Several senior officials in the palace and the British government responded with startled laughter to the idea that her relationship with Trump could have matched the affection she felt for some of his predecessors. Dwight Eisenhower had been a wartime hero and Ronald Reagan a friend who bonded over horses and Hollywood. Her fondness for Barack Obama had struck officials on both sides of the Atlantic.
Some former presidents and first ladies were skeptical, too.
“That’s hysterical,” Jill Biden said as Joe Biden shook his head. “Oh, that fits his character, for sure.”
Hillary Clinton responded, “Why am I not surprised by that?” She added, “I don’t think there is any evidence to believe that could possibly be true.”
Bill Clinton recalled a conversation he had with Obama and Biden in 2024. “We were all joking at Ethel Kennedy’s funeral about how she tried to make every Democratic president feel like he was her favorite, and she was shrewd about that, Ethel was. And Queen Elizabeth was no dummy. She knew what she was doing …”
He would be “shocked” if Elizabeth had ever identified a favorite, Bill Clinton said. “I have no idea what she really thought of any of us. I just know … what I thought of her, and I thought she was really special.”
Susan Page is the Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY and the best-selling author of biographies of Barbara Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Walters.
