President Donald Trump had no trouble finding the bright side in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to return to the United Kingdom.
“I’m happy about it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday when asked about the couple’s departure from the United States. “I was not a fan.”
The president took particular issue with how Meghan treated Harry’s relatives, including the late Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III. Trump said he would not have welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex back into the family.
“I didn’t like the way she acted,” Trump said. “I thought she was terribly disrespectful to the Queen, to King Charles.”
“If I were the royal family, I would not have taken them back,” he added.
Trump spoke warmly of both monarchs while explaining his view. He said he developed a close relationship with Queen Elizabeth and has known Charles for a long time.
“He’s great, great guy,” Trump said of the king. “Frankly, if I were the royal family, I wouldn’t have taken them back.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have just landed in the UK 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/i2FyCv3gW1
— Austin Mulla (@AustinMulla) August 27, 2026
Harry and Meghan are returning across the Atlantic with their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, after years in California.
The Sussexes will retain homes in Montecito and Portugal, but their children will attend school in the United Kingdom.
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The relocation follows a July gathering at Highgrove House, King Charles’ country estate, that brought the king and Queen Camilla together with Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet. It was the first meeting involving the family since the rift that separated the Sussexes from the rest of the royals years earlier.
Harry and Meghan stepped away from senior royal duties before settling in California during the coronavirus pandemic. They remain nonworking royals, and the move does not mean they will resume official duties.
Trump’s comments come after a long-running public feud with Meghan, who spoke out against him during the 2016 presidential race while promoting “Suits.”
“I’m voting for Hillary Clinton, not because she is a woman, but because Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want that kind of world that he’s painting,” Meghan said. She had called Trump “misogynistic” and “divisive.”
When The Sun asked Trump about Meghan’s remarks in 2019, he replied, “I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty.”
The following year, amid reports that Meghan supported Joe Biden, Trump made clear he had no newfound admiration for the duchess.
“I’m not a fan of hers,” Trump said. “I wish a lot of luck to Harry, because he’s going to need it.”
Harry and Meghan also made a joint political appeal in 2020 for Time’s “100 Most Influential People” series, marking National Voter Registration Day.
“Every four years we are told the same thing, that this is the most important election of our time,” Meghan said. “But this one is.”
She urged voters to make their voices heard and called for “communities of compassion.” Harry used the same appearance to urge people to reject “hate speech, misinformation and negativity” ahead of the election.
He continued the Trump-related barbs last December during an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s now-defunct late-night program.
While discussing a fictional Hallmark Christmas movie role called the “Gingerbread Prince,” Harry joked that Americans were drawn to both Christmas movies and royalty.
“Really? I heard you elected a king,” Harry told Colbert after the host rejected the idea that Americans were obsessed with royalty. The audience booed.
Harry then mentioned his ancestor George III and asked what else he would need to do to land a Hallmark part.
He offered a list that included recording a self-tape, flying himself to an audition and settling “a baseless lawsuit with the White House.”
Prince Harry is a POS. How dare this a$$hole insult our President? This fvcking piece of trash.
DEPORT THIS MAN NOW.#princeharry @StateDept @SecRubio pic.twitter.com/GWqWYnAamv
— TR G – The Royal Grift (@TheRoyalGrift) December 4, 2025
“I’ll record a self-tape, I’ll fly myself to an audition, settle a baseless lawsuit with the White House, all the things you people on TV do,” Harry said.
The joke referred to CBS, Colbert’s parent company, which settled with Trump earlier this year after the president sued the broadcaster over its editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris before the 2024 election.
Colbert told Harry, “I didn’t do any of those things.”
“Maybe that’s why you’re canceled,” Harry replied, referring to CBS’ summer announcement that the show would end in May 2026.
Despite their public history, Trump said in February that he did not plan to deport Harry.
The Heritage Foundation had sued the Department of Homeland Security for the prince’s immigration records after Harry wrote in his 2023 memoir, “Spare,” about using cocaine, cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms.
“I don’t want to do that,” Trump told The New York Post when asked whether he would deport Harry. “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Freedom of Information Act cases did not produce information from either agency about Harry’s immigration status.
Mike Howell, a former Heritage staffer who now leads the Oversight Project and is a party to the suits, said the legal effort would continue despite the couple’s move.
“We still want all the documents,” Howell said. “Prince Harry may be leaving, but our fight for the truth goes on. Maybe he won’t be able to come back.”