I’M HAPPY THEY LEFT” — TRUMP SLAMS MEGHAN AS “TERRIBLY DISRESPECTFUL” AFTER HARRY & MEGHAN RETURN TO THE UK
I’M HAPPY THEY LEFT” — TRUMP SLAMS MEGHAN AS “TERRIBLY DISRESPECTFUL” AFTER HARRY & MEGHAN RETURN TO THE UK
The Sussexes had barely settled back on British soil when Donald Trump delivered a blunt message from the White House.
“I’m happy about it.”
That was Trump’s reaction when reporters asked about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leaving the United States and returning to Britain after six years in California.
But the comment quickly became much more than a reaction to their move.
Trump said he had never been a fan of the couple, accused them of treating the Royal Family with “great disrespect,” and singled out Meghan in particular.
“I thought she was terribly disrespectful to the Queen, to King Charles,” Trump said.
And then came the line that turned the exchange into a royal talking point:
“If I were the royal family, I would not have taken them back.”
Trump’s Message Was Clear — He Was Not Welcoming the Return
Harry and Meghan’s return to Britain was already attracting intense attention.
After leaving the U.K. in 2020 and building a new life in California, the couple returned with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet for an extended stay.
Their children have begun school in Britain, while Harry and Meghan are expected to remain private, non-working members of the Royal Family rather than resume official royal duties.
That distinction matters.
Because the Sussexes may be physically back in Britain, but that does not mean they have returned to the institutional role they once held.
Trump’s comments landed directly in the middle of that tension.
He was not simply discussing where Harry and Meghan live.
He was offering his own view of what happened between the Sussexes and the Royal Family — and making clear that, in his view, the family had already endured enough.
Meghan Was the One Trump Singled Out
Trump did not limit his criticism to Harry.
When explaining why he had not been a fan of the couple, he specifically focused on Meghan’s behavior toward the monarchy.
He said he “didn’t like the way she acted” and described her treatment of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles as “terribly disrespectful.”
That wording is significant because Trump contrasted his view of Harry and Meghan with his own relationship with members of the Royal Family.
He spoke warmly about the late Queen Elizabeth II, saying he had a “very good relationship” with her.
He also praised Charles, saying he had known him both as Prince Charles and as King Charles and calling him a “great, great guy.”
So Trump's comments created a sharp contrast:
Warm words for the monarchy.
Cold words for the Sussexes.
And Meghan became the central target of his criticism.
“I Wouldn’t Have Taken Them Back”
Perhaps the most striking part of Trump’s remarks was not his criticism of Meghan.
It was his judgment about reconciliation.
Trump said:
“I wouldn’t have taken them back, frankly.”
He then repeated the point, saying that if he were part of the Royal Family, he would not have taken Harry and Meghan back.
That does not mean Trump has any formal role in deciding the Sussexes’ relationship with the monarchy.
He does not.
But his comment adds another public voice to a question that has surrounded Harry’s return:
Can Harry come home without truly coming back?
The answer, at least institutionally, appears to be yes.
Harry can live in Britain, raise his children there and maintain a personal relationship with his father while remaining outside the working Royal Family.
That distinction has become one of the defining features of the Sussexes’ new British chapter.
Harry Came Back — But the Royal Door Did Not Fully Reopen
The timing makes Trump’s remarks especially interesting.
Harry has recently spoken positively about being back in Britain, saying it was “good to be back on British soil.”
He and Meghan have also begun rebuilding a day-to-day life in the country, with their children attending school there.
But the Palace has separately reaffirmed that the couple remain non-working royals.
In other words, the Sussexes’ return has created a strange middle ground.
They are back in Britain.
They are closer to Charles.
Their children are spending time in the country where Harry grew up.
Yet the institutional relationship remains sharply defined.
Trump’s criticism therefore touches a larger question surrounding the move:
Was Harry’s return ever supposed to mean a return to royal life?
So far, the public evidence points to something much more limited — a family returning to Britain without returning to official royal duties.
The Timing Could Hardly Be More Dramatic
The Sussexes’ move has already created a complicated royal backdrop.
Harry and William remain estranged. King Charles has made clear that Harry and Meghan are not returning as working royals. Security arrangements have also become a major issue, particularly after Archie and Lilibet changed schools following concerns surrounding their journey.
Against that backdrop, Trump’s remarks introduce another layer of public scrutiny.
He is essentially saying that, from his perspective, the family’s reconciliation with Harry should not have gone as far as it has.
But that is Trump’s personal view — not a statement of royal policy.
The Royal Family’s decisions remain the Royal Family’s own.
And Charles appears to be navigating a different balance: maintaining a personal relationship with his son while keeping a firm institutional boundary around the monarchy.
Trump and Meghan Have a History
Trump’s criticism also did not appear out of nowhere.
He and Meghan have exchanged criticism publicly for years.
In 2019, Trump pushed back after Meghan had previously described him as “divisive” and “misogynistic” during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Trump later called Meghan “nasty,” a characterization he subsequently discussed publicly.
Now, years later, the dispute has resurfaced in a completely different setting.
Meghan is no longer simply a California-based former working royal.
She is back in Britain with Harry and their children.
And Trump is openly saying he is glad she left America.
That gives the old disagreement a very different backdrop.
But What Does Trump’s Remark Actually Change?
Perhaps less than the headline suggests — and that may be the most interesting part.
Trump cannot decide whether Harry and Meghan remain members of the Royal Family.
He cannot determine their titles.
He cannot decide where their children attend school.
And he does not control the Palace’s relationship with the Sussexes.
What he can do is put a very blunt public interpretation on their return.
For Trump, the story is simple: he believes Harry and Meghan treated the Royal Family with disrespect, and he says he would not have welcomed them back.
For Harry and Meghan, the situation appears more complicated.
They have returned to Britain.
Their children are building connections there.
Harry is publicly embracing being back on British soil.
But the family is doing all of this outside the working structure of the monarchy.
That leaves one question hanging over the Sussexes’ new chapter:
Can Harry and Meghan build a permanent life in Britain without ever truly being welcomed back into the Royal Family?
Trump has made clear what his answer would be.
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But the people who ultimately determine that relationship are not in Washington.
They are inside the House of Windsor.
