When Donald Trump was running for president for the first time in 2016, the still-single Meghan Markle said she might prefer to live in Canada if the “divisive” and “misogynistic” reality TV host-turned Republican politician was elected.
One wonders if Meghan is re-thinking the Canada option, now that the former Hollywood actor is married to Prince Harry, they live in California and Trump is again running for U.S. president and is the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a Buckeye Values PAC rally on Saturday, March 16, 2024, in Vandalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
First of all, a second-term Trump is expected to take an extremely hard line on immigration if he returns to the White House in 2025, with the New York Times reporting that he plans to round up unauthorized immigrants, detain them in sprawling camps and expel millions of immigrants per year.
Second, Trump isn’t that fond of Meghan and Harry, and he doesn’t sound inclined to help the British prince sort out his U.S. visa problems stemming from his admitted drug use.
Indeed, Trump suggested in an interview this week that, if elected president again, he wouldn’t do anything to help the Duke of Sussex avoid being deported if he lied about taking drugs on his American visa application, Politico and other outlets reported. Trump said that Harry shouldn’t receive special treatment.
“We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action,” Trump said in his interview with U.K.-based GB News, according to Politico.
“Which might mean … not staying in America?” interviewer Nigel Farage asked, to which a Trump coyly replied: “Oh I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me.”
Harry and Meghan, known for their support of left-leaning causes, have not made themselves popular with Trump and other American conservatives since their acrimonious departure from royal duties in 2020. Trump has specifically critiqued the couple, separately and together, over the past five years.
Trump has said multiple times that he is “not a fan” of Meghan, Newsweek reported. He called the former “Suits” star “nasty” before he made a state visit to the U.K. as president in 2019. In 2022, he told British TV host Piers Morgan that Harry is “whipped” and was “being led around by his nose” by his American wife, CBS News reported. “He has been so disrespectful to the country and I think he’s an embarrassment,” Trump also said.
Last month, Trump renewed his criticism of Harry when the prince’s relationship with the United States was in the spotlight. During an interview with “Good Morning America,” Harry said he had considered becoming a U.S. citizen.
But Trump didn’t react well to Harry’s possible interest in switching his allegiance to the United States. In an interview with the Daily Express, during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump specifically talked about Harry “betraying the queen,” presumably because of his criticism of the British monarchy before Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, Newsweek reported.
Trump also said Harry “would be on his own if it was down to me,” referring to the ongoing legal dispute over the duke’s U.S. visa status.
Harry’s status has been under scrutiny since the Heritage Foundation, an American conservative think tank, sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for access to the duke’s immigration records.
Applicants for certain American visas typically must disclose whether they have ever taken drugs. Other public figures have run into issues entering the U.S. over their reported drug use.
Prince Harry’s memoir “Spare” topped the list of most-checked out books in the San Jose Public Library system in 2023. Emily Henry’s “Book Lovers” and “Happy Place,” photographed at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Main Library in downtown San Jose, also made the top 10 list. (Photo courtesy of the San Jose Public Library)
In his memoir “Spare,” Harry admitted to using various drugs and psychedelics, including cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms, which often could be grounds for a visa application to be rejected.
It’s not known whether Harry admitted to his past drug use on his visa application. That’s one the things that the Heritage Foundation wants to find out. The foundation also would like to investigate whether Harry received preferential treatment when his visa application was approved.
The Biden has administration has resisted calls for the prince’s visa application to be made public. At a court hearing, DHS lawyers argued that the prince’s admissions in “Spare” were not “proof” that he had taken drugs and could have been an embellishment to “sell books”.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that the DHS must hand over Harry’s visa documents so the judge can review them and decide whether they should be made public. On Sunday, lawyers for the department requested more time to find the records.