Donald Trump has warned that Prince Harry will be “on his own” if he is re-elected as president and criticised the Duke of Sussex for his “unforgivable” betrayal of the late Queen.
The former president said that Joe Biden’s administration had been “too gracious” to the Duke of Sussex since he moved to America with his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2020.
Speaking on the fringes of the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump told the Express that he would not protect the prince as he alleged that Biden had done. “I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me,” the former president said.
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Prince Harry’s US immigration records are the focus of a lawsuit, with the Biden administration resisting calls for the documents to be made public to reveal if the duke had lied about his drug use when he entered the US. “I think they have been too gracious to him after what he has done,” Trump said.
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His comments followed a court hearing in Washington on Friday at which the US government again refused to make the prince’s visa application public. The lawsuit has been brought by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, which has alleged that the Duke of Sussex lied about his drug use on his visa application or received preferential treatment from the US government.
In his memoir, Spare, the 39-year-old prince admitted to having used marijuana, magic mushrooms and cocaine. US visa applicants who admit to illegal drug use are generally denied entry, although the government is permitted to make exceptions.
At Friday’s hearing the government argued that the admissions in the prince’s book were not “proof” that he had taken drugs and the story could have been embellished to “sell books”.
John Bardo, an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security, told the court: “Just saying something in a book doesn’t make it true.”
He added: “There are multiple lawful ways that the duke might have entered the US and do not show government impropriety.”
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The Heritage Foundation claims that there is clear public interest in revealing whether the prince lied to enter the US or was granted preferential treatment.
Holding up a copy of Spare in court Samuel Dewey, a lawyer for the Heritage Foundation, said that the “duke explicitly admitted at length to drug use” in his book.
Speaking after the hearing, Dewey said that there was “real concern that the government acted inappropriately” by granting the prince a visa or failing to act when Spare was published. Nile Gardiner, of the Heritage Foundation, said: “There is a clear public interest in establishing whether or not Prince Harry lied on his immigration application. If that is the case, it is a criminal offence.”
He asked why the Biden administration was “fighting on behalf of Prince Harry” to protect his privacy when he was “one of the most public figures in the world today, of his own volition”.
Trump has criticised the duke and duchess before for having treated Queen Elizabeth with disrespect. He told the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in September: “I didn’t like the way they dealt with the Queen. I became very friendly with the Queen.
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“She was an incredible woman. I think it’s not a good situation going on with the two of them.”
