It's no secret that the relationship between Prince Charles and Donald Trump is frosty – so royal watchers were keen to see how they would interact at Buckingham Palace.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall greeted the US president and his wife Melania ten months after Charles is said to have “deliberately snubbed” the politician, who once bragged that he could have bedded Princess Diana.
Leading body language expert Judi James gives her verdict on how the men interacted, saying Charles displayed "self-comfort anxiety rituals". She writes:
Was there any extra tension behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace during Donald Trump’s visit?
Prince Charles's body language signals suggested there was.
The Prince of Wales' signature self-comfort anxiety rituals appeared to have increased as he emerged from the palace to greet Trump on the lawn outside.
He patted his pockets; stuffed one hand inside his left pocket several times; fiddled with his cuffs and ended employing a hand-wring as he stood waiting, suggesting high levels of agitation.
He received Trump with a warm smile though, finding himself on the receiving end of a very prolonged, bent-arm handshake ritual that included eight or nine hand-judders and even a pat on the arm add-on gesture from Trump, who was clearly trying to show bloke-ish friendship and good humour.
There was some rather awkward rituals of herding and ushering after that, with Trump using one hand to usher Charles to walk in front, which led to Charles throwing both arms out to his sides to counter-herd Trump in front of him like a shepherd with his flock.
Trump adopted an air of happy dignity, using a mouth-clamp and raised chin plus a very upright walk, although he broke into a smile of pleasure as he walked up to greet the Queen.
Trump claimed he could have bedded Diana
By Chris Kitching
Business mogul-turned-politician Donald Trump, now 72, is known for making dubious claims and inappropriate comments about women in his decades in the spotlight.
He made some tasteless remarks about Princess Diana, 36, shortly before her death in a car crash in Paris 1997.
Then a real estate magnate, Trump, speaking to radio shock jock Howard Stern, bragged that he could have bedded the Princess of Wales.
Trump – who recently called Prince Harry's wife, Meghan Markle, "nasty" – agreed he could have "nailed" the mother-of-two in a shocking interview.
Stern asked: "You could’ve gotten her, right? You could’ve nailed her."
Trump agreed, saying: "I think I could have."
He added: “She was actually really beautiful. I thought she was supermodel beautiful.
"She had times when she didn’t look great and she had times when she looked better than anyone in the world."
It is said that both Charles and Prince William "deliberately snubbed" Trump when he visited the UK in July last year.
In 1994, Trump told the New York Times that Charles and Diana – then still married – would be joining his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
It was an effort to boost his business, but it was fake news. Buckingham Palace responded to the report and called the claims "rubbish".
The palace was also forced to rubbish claims that Diana wanted an apartment in Trump Tower in New York.
More recently, the Prince of Wales, 70, and Trump are at odds over climate change.
Charles, the heir to the throne, is a champion of the environment who has launched a number of conservation initiatives over the years.
Trump has called climate change a "Chinese hoax", "bulls**t" and a "con job" in the past, he wants to pull the US out of the Paris Accord, and many of his policies have been condemned by environmentalists.
In January 2014, two years before he was sworn in, Trump tweeted: "This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bulls**t has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice."
Source: Read Full Article