Harry and Meghan attend the WellChild Awards in London in 2018. Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
US President Donald Trump told ITV's "Good Morning Britain" in an interview aired Wednesday that he spoke with Prince Harry during his visit to Buckingham Palace on Monday, but not about his comments on Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Harry stayed across the room from Trump during the part of that visit that was open to the press.
“We didn’t talk about it ... I was going to because it was so falsely put out there," Trump said. And when you see that transcript and you see, it’s the exact opposite of what they said. Did you look at the transcript?”
When asked last week about Meghan's comments in 2016 – before she was a royal -- that she would move to Canada if Trump was elected, the President told British tabloid The Sun, "I didn't know that she was nasty. I hope she is OK."
The US President also defended his comments about the Duchess.
Asked by ITV whether he thought Meghan is nasty, Trump said: “They said some of the things that she said and It’s actually on tape. And I said, ‘Well, I didn’t know she was nasty.’ I wasn’t referring to she’s nasty. I said she was nasty about me. And essentially I didn’t know she was nasty about me."
"She was nasty to me. And that’s OK for her to be nasty, it’s not good for me to be nasty to her, and I wasn’t," Trump added.
"You know what? She’s doing a good job, I hope she enjoys her life," the President went on. "I think she’s very nice."
US President Donald Trump will join the Queen in Portsmouth to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, on the final day of his UK state visit.
Theresa May will host 15 world leaders to honour the largest combined land, air and naval operation in history.
Figures from every country that fought alongside the UK will be attending.
Mr Trump said he was looking forward to going to Portsmouth to commemorate what "may have been the greatest battle ever in history".
The countries being represented at the event have agreed to make a joint statement pledging to ensure the "unimaginable horror" of World War Two is not repeated.
Called "the D-Day proclamation", the 16 signatories - including the UK and the United States - commit to working together to "resolve international tensions peacefully".
The UK prime minister will use the occasion to call for continued Western unity in tackling what she will call "new and evolving security threats".
The commemorations to mark the Allied invasion of northern France come a day after Mr Trump had a series of political meetings as part of his three-day state visit to the UK.
The president used a TV interview to play down his earlier suggestion that the NHS would be included in post-Brexit trade talks between the US and the UK.
During a joint news conference with the UK prime minister, Mr Trump had said "everything is on the table" in future discussions between the countries.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock was among several Conservative leadership candidates who said they would not allow the NHS to become part of any trade talks.
And later Mr Trump told Piers Morgan in an interview for ITV's Good Morning Britain that he did not "see it being on the table".
"Somebody asked me a question today and I said everything's up for negotiation because everything is, but I don't see that being... that's something that I would not consider part of trade. That's not trade," he said.
Other things Mr Trump said in the ITV interview were:
People who fought in D-Day paid the "ultimate debt". "That may have been the greatest battle ever in history," he said. "Being at that site [Portsmouth was one of the key embarkation points on D-Day] will be very interesting"
He would have "no problem" with meeting Jeremy Corbyn another time after earlier revealing he had turned down a request to meet the Labour leader who he called a "negative force"
He had a long conversation with Prince Charles about climate change - referred to as "extreme weather" by Mr Trump - and was impressed with the prince's "passion" for future generations
His mother "would have been very proud" to see him meet the Queen
"There's always a chance" he might take military action in Iran, but he does not want to. "I'd much rather talk [to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani]," he said
On having the nuclear codes - "I think it's a terrible responsibility but it's a responsibility I'm prepared to handle"
On his ban on transgender people serving in the army - "It is what it is," he said. "They take massive amounts of drugs, they have to... You would have to break rules and regulations in order to have that"
Tuesday saw protesters gathered in central London and other cities - including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Sheffield - to voice their opposition to President Trump's visit.
Mr Corbyn - who boycotted Monday evening's state dinner - was joined at the rally on Tuesday by members of other political parties, including the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party.
Trump and what comes next
For any prime minister, handling a president like Donald Trump is like trying to hold on to a Ming vase walking across a recently polished, slippery parquet floor.
He's a leader who glories in the unpredictable, who seems to wake up every morning wondering what controversy he can provoke, what headlines he can create.
His reason for being is therefore from the start in contrast with the stiff choreography of a state visit.
But No 10 will be relieved that the formalities with the PM were free of mishap. And, as Theresa May readies herself for the exit, Donald Trump, who has definitely embarrassed her in the past, didn't repeat that habit.
Instead, he spoke warmly of her, suggesting that history may judge her much more kindly than the manner of her departure suggests.
But some of the most notable remarks were not related to the prime minister in any case, but to what's next.
Whether you are overjoyed about Mrs May leaving or not, it is telling that the three names Donald Trump mentioned immediately when asked about the next leader were Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, and Michael Gove, categorising them deliberately or not as the three most likely candidates to win the keys to No 10.
"The big crowds, which the Corrupt Media hates to show, were those that gathered in support of the USA and me," he added.
At the end of a day of meetings with the prime minister and a visit to the Churchill War Rooms, Mr Trump welcomed guests for a banquet at the US ambassador's residence in Regent's Park.
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attended on behalf of the Queen, along with the prime minister and some members of her cabinet.
The US president is expected to meet Tory leadership hopeful Michael Gove on Wednesday morning before his first official engagement in Portsmouth at 11:00 BST.
The president has already had a phone conversation with fellow candidate Boris Johnson.
The Queen and the Prince of Wales will attend the commemorations on Southsea Common, along with representatives from every country that fought alongside the UK in the Battle of Normandy.
It was the largest military operation ever attempted and marked the start of the campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied north-west Europe.
Troops from the UK, the US, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of northern France, on 6 June 1944.
Joining Mrs May and Mr Trump will be French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as prime ministers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland and Slovakia.
The last time the UK hosted this many world leaders outside a formal summit was the 2012 Olympics.
Members of the armed forces and more than 300 veterans, who are all over 90 years old, will also attend the event in Portsmouth - one of the key embarkation points on D-Day.
Following the commemorations, Mr Trump will fly to Shannon for his first visit to the Republic of Ireland as US president.
He will then hold a meeting with the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar before he goes to his golf resort in Doonbeg.
President Trump sat down with Piers Morgan for ITV's "Good Morning Britain" and clarified controversial comments last week about Meghan Markle.
Trump said he wasn't calling Markle nasty, but rather was just surprised to hear her comments about him, including her assertion that if he became president it would force Americans to relocate to Canada.
"I wasn’t referring to 'she’s nasty.' I said she was nasty about me. And essentially I didn’t know she was nasty about me," Trump told Morgan in the interview, set to air on Wednesday.
In an interview published Friday, The Sun, a British tabloid, read aloud comments to Trump from a 2016 interview in which Markle, 37, accused him of being “misogynistic” and “divisive” during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“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,” Markle said in an interview on "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" while promoting her television series, "Suits."
“I didn’t know that," Trump said of her comments when asked about them, The Sun reported Friday. "What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty."
Markle skipped the initial reception attended by Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Prince Harry on Monday at Buckingham Palace. She is on maternity leave with her 3-week old son.
Nigel Farage is driven into the US ambassador's residence in London
Barely an hour after Donald Trump's joint press conference with Theresa May ended, all eyes shifted to the spectacle of Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, being driven into Winfield House, the residence of the US ambassador to London, where Trump is staying.
In the opulent setting of the Foreign Office, Trump was effusive in his praise for the departing May. But the fact that, in the next breath, he was meeting her nemesis, served to underscore the mess the UK's political system is in.
May announced her intention to stand down last month, as her governing Conservative party took a drubbing in the European elections. The winner of that election was none other than Farage, who has capitalized on the government's failure to deliver on the Brexit result.
As Trump stood next to May, he heaped praise on her approach to the Brexit negotiations, said that she was leaving the country in a very good place and even suggested that she might be a better negotiator than the President himself. “I think you deserve a lot of credit. I really do.”
All that will ring a little hollow as he welcomes his "friend" Farage, a man who has twice bought the Conservative Party to its knees over Europe.
Meeting with Trump works for Farage as it plays to his hard Brexiteer base. But the President's limited popularity in the UK makes an endorsement less appealing.
Boris Johnson, the current favorite to replace May, declined a meeting with Trump, citing a previously planned event for his campaign. He did, however, hold a 20-minute phone call with the President.
For Johnson, it’s possible that declining to meet with Trump in person is more useful than a thumping endorsement. Looking too chummy with Trump could come back to bite him, whereas a short phone call shows that Johnson is a mature politician who wants a good relationship with America. Perhaps.
The opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, spent his afternoon at an anti-Trump rally. This plays well to his base, who loathe Trump's brand of nationalism. One can only imagine how delighted Corbyn was to have Trump call him a “somewhat negative force."
This state visit has been a pleasant distraction from the upcoming mayhem the UK is about to charge headfirst into. But it's hard to ignore the fact that Trump's whirlwind trip has done little more than shake up an already chaotic political landscape.
Nigel Farage is driven into the US ambassador's residence in London
Barely an hour after Donald Trump's joint press conference with Theresa May ended, all eyes shifted to the spectacle of Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, being driven into Winfield House, the residence of the US ambassador to London, where Trump is staying.
In the opulent setting of the Foreign Office, Trump was effusive in his praise for the departing May. But the fact that, in the next breath, he was meeting her nemesis, served to underscore the mess the UK's political system is in.
May announced her intention to stand down last month, as her governing Conservative party took a drubbing in the European elections. The winner of that election was none other than Farage, who has capitalized on the government's failure to deliver on the Brexit result.
As Trump stood next to May, he heaped praise on her approach to the Brexit negotiations, said that she was leaving the country in a very good place and even suggested that she might be a better negotiator than the President himself. “I think you deserve a lot of credit. I really do.”
All that will ring a little hollow as he welcomes his "friend" Farage, a man who has twice bought the Conservative Party to its knees over Europe.
Meeting with Trump works for Farage as it plays to his hard Brexiteer base. But the President's limited popularity in the UK makes an endorsement less appealing.
Boris Johnson, the current favorite to replace May, declined a meeting with Trump, citing a previously planned event for his campaign. He did, however, hold a 20-minute phone call with the President.
For Johnson, it’s possible that declining to meet with Trump in person is more useful than a thumping endorsement. Looking too chummy with Trump could come back to bite him, whereas a short phone call shows that Johnson is a mature politician who wants a good relationship with America. Perhaps.
The opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, spent his afternoon at an anti-Trump rally. This plays well to his base, who loathe Trump's brand of nationalism. One can only imagine how delighted Corbyn was to have Trump call him a “somewhat negative force."
This state visit has been a pleasant distraction from the upcoming mayhem the UK is about to charge headfirst into. But it's hard to ignore the fact that Trump's whirlwind trip has done little more than shake up an already chaotic political landscape.
Nigel Farage is driven into the US ambassador's residence in London
Barely an hour after Donald Trump's joint press conference with Theresa May ended, all eyes shifted to the spectacle of Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, being driven into Winfield House, the residence of the US ambassador to London, where Trump is staying.
In the opulent setting of the Foreign Office, Trump was effusive in his praise for the departing May. But the fact that, in the next breath, he was meeting her nemesis, served to underscore the mess the UK's political system is in.
May announced her intention to stand down last month, as her governing Conservative party took a drubbing in the European elections. The winner of that election was none other than Farage, who has capitalized on the government's failure to deliver on the Brexit result.
As Trump stood next to May, he heaped praise on her approach to the Brexit negotiations, said that she was leaving the country in a very good place and even suggested that she might be a better negotiator than the President himself. “I think you deserve a lot of credit. I really do.”
All that will ring a little hollow as he welcomes his "friend" Farage, a man who has twice bought the Conservative Party to its knees over Europe.
Meeting with Trump works for Farage as it plays to his hard Brexiteer base. But the President's limited popularity in the UK makes an endorsement less appealing.
Boris Johnson, the current favorite to replace May, declined a meeting with Trump, citing a previously planned event for his campaign. He did, however, hold a 20-minute phone call with the President.
For Johnson, it’s possible that declining to meet with Trump in person is more useful than a thumping endorsement. Looking too chummy with Trump could come back to bite him, whereas a short phone call shows that Johnson is a mature politician who wants a good relationship with America. Perhaps.
The opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, spent his afternoon at an anti-Trump rally. This plays well to his base, who loathe Trump's brand of nationalism. One can only imagine how delighted Corbyn was to have Trump call him a “somewhat negative force."
This state visit has been a pleasant distraction from the upcoming mayhem the UK is about to charge headfirst into. But it's hard to ignore the fact that Trump's whirlwind trip has done little more than shake up an already chaotic political landscape.
Nigel Farage is driven into the US ambassador's residence in London
Barely an hour after Donald Trump's joint press conference with Theresa May ended, all eyes shifted to the spectacle of Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, being driven into Winfield House, the residence of the US ambassador to London, where Trump is staying.
In the opulent setting of the Foreign Office, Trump was effusive in his praise for the departing May. But the fact that, in the next breath, he was meeting her nemesis, served to underscore the mess the UK's political system is in.
May announced her intention to stand down last month, as her governing Conservative party took a drubbing in the European elections. The winner of that election was none other than Farage, who has capitalized on the government's failure to deliver on the Brexit result.
As Trump stood next to May, he heaped praise on her approach to the Brexit negotiations, said that she was leaving the country in a very good place and even suggested that she might be a better negotiator than the President himself. “I think you deserve a lot of credit. I really do.”
All that will ring a little hollow as he welcomes his "friend" Farage, a man who has twice bought the Conservative Party to its knees over Europe.
Meeting with Trump works for Farage as it plays to his hard Brexiteer base. But the President's limited popularity in the UK makes an endorsement less appealing.
Boris Johnson, the current favorite to replace May, declined a meeting with Trump, citing a previously planned event for his campaign. He did, however, hold a 20-minute phone call with the President.
For Johnson, it’s possible that declining to meet with Trump in person is more useful than a thumping endorsement. Looking too chummy with Trump could come back to bite him, whereas a short phone call shows that Johnson is a mature politician who wants a good relationship with America. Perhaps.
The opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, spent his afternoon at an anti-Trump rally. This plays well to his base, who loathe Trump's brand of nationalism. One can only imagine how delighted Corbyn was to have Trump call him a “somewhat negative force."
This state visit has been a pleasant distraction from the upcoming mayhem the UK is about to charge headfirst into. But it's hard to ignore the fact that Trump's whirlwind trip has done little more than shake up an already chaotic political landscape.
