WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:12.039
Ah calorogus shark media now lo and welcome to Palace Intrigue.
2
00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:15.039
I am your host, Mark Francis Donald Trump, since he
3
00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:18.559
is apparently no longer planning to annex Canada. In a
4
00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:22.600
new interview with royal biographer Robert Hardman, Trump joke that
5
00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:26.000
despite all his past talk about Canada becoming America's fifty
6
00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:28.879
first state, he has now concluded there simply is not
7
00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.479
enough time left in his presidency to erase two centuries
8
00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:35.960
of Canadian identity. I suppose the Canadians have got two
9
00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:38.560
hundred years of history and all that oh Canada thing.
10
00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:40.920
Trump said, you can't deal with that in three and
11
00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:43.320
a half years. I guess it's not going to happen.
12
00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:46.719
According to Hardman, the moment came after he told Trump
13
00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:50.479
to please leave Canada alone, adding that annexing the country
14
00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:54.679
would undoubtedly make the King of Canada unhappy. The prompted
15
00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:57.880
Trump to ask, do they still recognize the king or
16
00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.880
have they stopped that? When told the Canadianians do still
17
00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:04.480
recognize King Charles as head of state, Trump reportedly replied,
18
00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:07.280
but they have these terrible politicians. They're nice to my
19
00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:09.519
face and then they say bad things behind my back.
20
00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:12.319
The problem is some guy drew that straight line to
21
00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:14.239
make a border. He should have just drawn it fifty
22
00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:17.120
miles further north and there wouldn't have been a problem.
23
00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:20.000
Last year, after Trump repeatedly floated the idea of Canada
24
00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:22.879
as the fifty first state, King Charles made a carefully
25
00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:26.280
choreographed visit to Ottawa for the state opening of Parliament.
26
00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:29.159
During that trip, he told Canadians their country was strong
27
00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:32.280
and free, in what was widely seen as a subtle
28
00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:37.200
but unmistakable assertion of Canadian sovereignty. Trump also had warm
29
00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:40.519
words for the King, personally calling him a fantastic guy
30
00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:44.280
and praising the way he has handled his cancer diagnosis.
31
00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.359
He's a great guy, and he's grown so much in
32
00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.480
the last ten years, and especially over the last couple
33
00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:51.079
of years as king. His fight has shown that, Trump said.
34
00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.159
He also reflected on Queen Elizabeth I, saying he once
35
00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:56.799
tried to get her to reveal her favorite presidents and
36
00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:00.200
prime ministers, but she refused to take the bait. So
37
00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:03.480
I realized that's why she lasted seventy years without a complaint,
38
00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:06.400
because she was so good at it. Trump said, the
39
00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:07.920
rest of us would have said, oh, I liked so
40
00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:09.680
and so, but she was so clever, and I know
41
00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:13.240
she liked me because we talked a lot. The King
42
00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:17.080
has found himself unexpectedly pulled into Donald Trump's latest broadside
43
00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:20.240
over NATO and the war in Iran. In an interview
44
00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:23.159
where The Telegraph, the US President claimed the King would
45
00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:26.240
have taken a very different view from Prime Minister Sakia
46
00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:28.840
Stamer over the conflict, saying his Majesty would have stood
47
00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:31.919
by the president more closely. Trump said of the King,
48
00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:34.560
I like him. I've always liked him as a prince.
49
00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:37.280
He's a good man, a great representative for your country,
50
00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:39.520
before adding I think he would have taken a very
51
00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.039
different stand on the war in Iran, but he doesn't
52
00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:45.319
do that. I mean, he's a great gentleman. He also
53
00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:47.280
described the monarch as a friend of mine and said
54
00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:49.400
I have a great relationship with King Charles. I've known
55
00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:51.599
him a long time. Trump went on to praise the
56
00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:54.680
King personally, saying he's a wonderful and brave man. To
57
00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:56.599
be honest with you, He's been through a lot in
58
00:02:56.680 --> 00:03:01.520
many ways. In the Telegraph, John Hemming suggests King Charles
59
00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:04.080
could use his upcoming address to Congress not as a
60
00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:07.800
ceremonial speech, but as a strategic intervention to try to
61
00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:12.159
steady a badly strained Anglo American alliance. His main suggestion
62
00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:14.599
is that the King should start by reminding Congress that
63
00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:18.759
the special relationship is much deeper than current politics. Hemmings
64
00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:21.360
says Charles should frame it not just around the Second
65
00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:24.199
World War and Cold War, but around the longer shared
66
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:27.919
democratic tradition between Britain and America, even going back to
67
00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:31.319
the English Civil War and figures like Thomas Paine. In
68
00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:34.120
other words, this is not just a diplomacy, it is
69
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:38.360
a shared political DNA. He also thinks Charles should widen
70
00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:43.000
that argument into the broader English speaking security bloc. Hemings
71
00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:47.800
points to the Five Eyes countries the United States, United Kingdom, Canada,
72
00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:51.719
Australia and New Zealand as a uniquely durable alliance built
73
00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:55.319
not just on sentiment but on real military intelligence and
74
00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:59.879
bureaucratic integration. His point is that this relationship is still operational,
75
00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.159
well not nostalgic. A big part of the piece is
76
00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:05.439
essentially a plea for the King to defend NATO and
77
00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:09.240
language that can still appeal to a skeptical American audience.
78
00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:12.400
Hemmings argues that Charles should make the case that NATO
79
00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:15.520
remains in both British and American self interest, and he
80
00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:19.800
suggests the King should note that alliance burden sharing has improved.
81
00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:22.560
He writes that for the first time, all NATO members
82
00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:25.839
have reached the two percent GDP spending target, and says
83
00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.720
Charles should underline that allies have also agreed to move
84
00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:33.319
toward five percent by twenty thirty five. In his Substack,
85
00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:37.879
Deep Crown wrote at length about charles trip. Deep Crown explains,
86
00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:40.560
let us talk about what he is actually walking into,
87
00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:44.040
because I think it is not fully appreciated outside of
88
00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:47.319
certain rooms in certain buildings on both sides of the Atlantic.
89
00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.600
Quite how extraordinarily delicate this moment is. Charles is a
90
00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:55.319
constitutional monarch. That is not a decorative fact. It is
91
00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:58.480
the central governing fact of everything he does and does
92
00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:01.680
not do. He does not have foreign policy positions. It
93
00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:04.240
does not have opinions about wars, at least not ones
94
00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.199
that can be uttered allowed. He holds, in the ancient
95
00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:10.839
and largely theoretical language of the prerogative, the power to
96
00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:15.720
declare war, and exercises it precisely never That is the arrangement.
97
00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:17.879
That is the deal. It has worked more or less
98
00:05:17.959 --> 00:05:21.839
for several centuries. What he is being asked to do
99
00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:24.800
in Washington is something rather more complicated than a state visit.
100
00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.240
He is being asked to be royal with a capital
101
00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:29.360
are in a room full of people who are watching
102
00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:33.720
him for signals he is constitutionally forbidden from sending. Every
103
00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:36.360
senator in that chamber will be looking for something. The
104
00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:39.399
administration will be looking for an endorsement, however, a bleak
105
00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:43.480
of the current direction of American foreign policy. The opposition
106
00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:45.920
will be looking for a flicker of discomfort they can use.
107
00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:48.680
The British government, whose relationship with the White House is
108
00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:50.879
at this moment something less than warm, will be hoping
109
00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:53.360
the King can do what their own diplomats have been
110
00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:56.160
unable to do, walk into that building and make the
111
00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:59.720
Americans feel well disposed toward them without anyone being able
112
00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:03.199
to say quite why. And he must do all of
113
00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:06.639
this while saying functionally, nothing that can be quoted out
114
00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:09.480
of context, nothing that could be clipped, nothing that can
115
00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:11.240
be held up the following morning is evidence of a
116
00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:15.000
royal view on a matter of active political controversy. He
117
00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:17.600
must be present, and yet absent. He must be warm
118
00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.399
and yet neutral. He must fill a room and leave
119
00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:23.279
no fingerprints. This is, I want to be clear, and
120
00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:28.000
almost impossible. Brief. The President has already complicated things considerably
121
00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:30.959
his remarks to the Telegraph last week. The suggestion that
122
00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:33.639
the King privately saw things different from Sir Kiir were
123
00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:37.199
not a compliment. They were a trap, elegantly disguised as one,
124
00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:39.680
and the Palace, to its credit, did not step in it.
125
00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.839
Five words in silence, that is the correct response. But
126
00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:45.680
the trap remains set, and Charles will have to walk
127
00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:47.959
past it in front of a joint session of Congress
128
00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:53.079
while cameras record every micro expression. Into this walks Charles,
129
00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:54.959
with his careful suits and his careful words, in his
130
00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:57.879
decades of practice of being in rooms where everyone wants
131
00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:00.879
something from him that he cannot give, he is, and
132
00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:04.360
I say this with some genuine admiration, extraordinarily well suited
133
00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:06.720
to exactly this kind of moment. Not because he is
134
00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:09.079
a natural politician, which he is not, but because he
135
00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:12.120
has spent his entire adult life learning to inhabit a
136
00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:14.560
role that requires him to mean more than he says.
137
00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.519
That is a very particular skill. Most people never acquire it.
138
00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:22.279
He has had seventy odd years of instruction. The crown
139
00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.319
itself is the message that it's the thing that is
140
00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:26.000
easy to lose sight of in the noise of the
141
00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.439
current moment. Simply standing there, representing the continuity in the
142
00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:33.079
dignity of an institution that has outlasted every political crisis
143
00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:36.120
it has ever encountered, is in itself a form of argument,
144
00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:39.759
a quiet one, but not an unpersuasive one. You do
145
00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:42.920
not need to say that alliance is matter, that institutions matter,
146
00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:45.920
that the patient work of diplomacy matters. If you are
147
00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:49.120
the living embodiment of all three, you simply need to
148
00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:52.560
be in the room. Whether it is enough for this room,
149
00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.360
on this trip, at this moment, I honestly do not know.
150
00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:57.680
I think it might be. I think he understands better
151
00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.600
than he has sometimes given credit for. The visit itself
152
00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:04.240
as the statement that arriving, behaving impeccably, and leaving without
153
00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.199
incident is a diplomatic achievement of the first order. When
154
00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:11.439
the world is arranged as it currently is, nobody will
155
00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:13.920
ask about any of this at the state dinner. Incidentally,
156
00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:15.879
they will talk about the gardens at windsor in the
157
00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:19.519
King's watercolors and whether the Queen is enjoying Washington and that,
158
00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:22.839
in its way, is exactly how it is supposed to work.
159
00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.800
You can subscribe to Deep Crown for free by searching
160
00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.240
for Deep Crown on Google or click the link in
161
00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:31.480
the show notes, or check out Deep Crown on substack.
162
00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:39.000
We'll be back in a moment. Meghan Markle's Easter Instagram
163
00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:42.399
post has sparked another round of criticism after one particular
164
00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:45.960
video of Princess Lilibet left some viewers calling the clip
165
00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:49.480
unsettling rather than sweet. Megan shared a collection of Easter
166
00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:53.080
moments from the family's Montecito home, including footage of chickens
167
00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:55.879
being fed, eggs being hunted and arching, and Lilibert running
168
00:08:55.879 --> 00:08:58.279
through the garden, but it was one short video of
169
00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:01.000
four year old Littabit wandering alone across the lawn in
170
00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:04.399
bunny years, carrying two stuffed animals that grew the strongest
171
00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:07.759
reaction online. The clip showed a little bit filmed from
172
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:09.759
behind as she walked barefoot through the garden in a
173
00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:11.919
pink dress, and some critics said the way it was
174
00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:16.080
shot felt odd rather than candid. One commenter wrote, this
175
00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:18.240
is kind of creepy. It's like Lily has a stalker
176
00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:21.440
and we're seeing through his eyes. Another added agreed it
177
00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:23.960
has a truly sentence to feel to it. A third
178
00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.960
person wrote, even creepy that it's her own mother who
179
00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:30.120
is following behind her and filming an innocent moment to
180
00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:33.519
post on Instagram debate the public into paying them attention.
181
00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:38.679
Some people are describing the video as the Montecito Blair
182
00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:42.200
witch Project. People notes that both Archie and Lilibet appear
183
00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:46.159
to have inherited Harry's red hair, although in slightly different shades.
184
00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:49.840
Archie's is described as more awe burned, while Lillibert's appearance
185
00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.919
appears to be a lighter, ginger much closer to Harry's
186
00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:56.360
own coloring. Harry joked about the spencer gene with Stephen
187
00:09:56.360 --> 00:09:59.200
Colbert in twenty twenty three, saying the ginger jean is
188
00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:01.759
a strong one. The spencer gene is very, very strong.
189
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:04.279
I actually really genuinely thought at the beginning of my
190
00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:07.720
relationship with Megan that should this go the distance and
191
00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:09.919
we have kids, that there's no way the ginger gene
192
00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:12.799
will stand up to my wife's jeans. But I was wrong.
193
00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:15.399
Go gingers and they have it. If you'd like to
194
00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:18.080
email us addresses The Palace Intrigue at gmail and dot com.
195
00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:20.799
Please followus on Spotify, Apple, or the Apple of your choice.
196
00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.559
I'm Mark francis My thanks to John mcdermy. This Palace
197
00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:25.159
Intrigue and continums