Trump's royal faux pas: What POTUS got wrong about his meeting with the queen

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Queen Elizabeth welcomes Trumps to Windsor Castle Britain's Queen Elizabeth II welcomed US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to Windsor Castle on Friday. (July 13)

Of all the mistakes President Donald Trump tried to fix Tuesday after his disastrous press conference in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he still managed to make another mistake involving his more sedate meeting with Queen Elizabeth II last week.

The big news of the day in Washington was Trump's walking back his remarks on Monday, when he seemed to say he believes Putin's denials more than the American intelligence community's assessment of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

On Tuesday, in a statement he read to reporters at the White House, Trump said he wanted to clarify that he misspoke in Helsinki, using the word "would" instead of "wouldn't."

"I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't.' ... The sentence should have been 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't,' or 'why it wouldn't be Russia.' "

But even before he cleared that up, Trump made another boo-boo, describing his much-desired meeting at Windsor Castle on Friday with the queen as a special honor. "We met with the queen, who is absolutely a terrific person, where she reviewed her Honor Guard for the first time in 70 years, they tell me," he said.

Who told him that? Surely no one at Windsor Castle, because it's not true. The queen, 92, has been Her Majesty since 1952; at 66 years and counting, it's the longest reign in British history but it's not 70 years yet.

Secondly, the queen meets foreign dignitaries practically every week and regularly inspects her Honor Guard at many ceremonies. She has met 12 sitting presidents, including Trump, and pacing down lines of scarlet-clad troops is a regular feature of the pageantry the British royals put on for guests.

President Trump proudly claimed the Queen gave him a special honour on his visit - a royal expert called it 'total fiction' https://t.co/S11ssqYjo5 pic.twitter.com/LtMiWZSY9P — The Independent (@Independent) July 17, 2018

British Trump critics, who spent Friday mocking Trump for his alleged faux pas at the meeting (making her wait 10 minutes, turning his back to her), were incredulous at this claim of his.

"Total fiction," regular royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said.

It wasn't the only untrue tale being spread Tuesday about Trump and the queen, and Trump wasn't responsible for all of them.

The Sunday Times in London, a major publication owned by Trump's media-mogul pal Rupert Murdoch, quoted an anonymous "insider" who claimed that Prince Charles and Prince William deliberately snubbed Trump by refusing to be at the meeting with the queen.

Spokesman: Prince William, Prince Charles did not snub Donald Trump Queen Elizabeth and President Donald Trump have finally met.

This was so outrageous – since it suggested the first and second in line to the throne were expressing political views in violation of Britain's constitution – that Buckingham Palace pushed back, denying in a statement that either prince was supposed to be there. Since the Trump meeting was not a state visit – it was more like a courtesy call – there were never plans to include other royals.

In fact, when President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama first called on the queen at the palace in April 2009, just months after taking office, the only other royal there for the audience was the queen's husband, Prince Philip, now 97, who has since retired from public life.

Speaking of Obama, his name was dropped in another wacky story making the rounds Tuesday on Twitter: the story about "brooch warfare."

Supposedly, the pieces of shoulder jewelry the queen chose to wear in public during the three days Trump was in the United Kingdom were subtle jabs at Trump, especially the American State Visit Brooch, a vintage bauble consisting of a small green flower that was a personal gift from the Obamas during their state visit in 2011.

Queen Elizabeth wore brooch the Obamas gave her as Trump arrived in UK.



I didn't know she was also the Queen of Shade. — Denizcan Grimes (@MrFilmkritik) July 17, 2018

On Thursday, the day the president and first lady Melania Trump arrived in the country, the queen wore it for an audience at Windsor Castle with Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar.

The queen has many brooches (it's a favorite form of jewelry for her), but this one was a natural choice as it perfectly complemented her green-and-yellow flowered dress.

Others theorized that the brooch she wore when she met Trump, a diamond paisley-shaped stunner she inherited from her mother, who made it famous by wearing it at the funeral of her husband, King George VI, in 1952, also was a slap at Trump although it wasn't made clear why it would be controversial: The queen has often worn this brooch.

The bottom line is the queen never jabs in public, either obviously or in a subtle way. It's just not done.

And sometimes a brooch is just a brooch.