The late Queen Elizabeth II was so meticulously discreet that on the very rare occasions when her own opinions on people, places, and things slipped out, it was front-page stuff.
The same applies even after her passing, with global news feeds this week dominated by reports that she told a friend over lunch, after Donald Trump had visited her in either 2018 or 2019, that she found him “very rude,” and speculated witheringly that he must have “some sort of arrangement” with his wife, Melania.
The claim was made in a new biography of the late queen, serialized in the Daily Mail, written by the well-connected society journalist Craig Brown. The new account of the queen’s life, heavily reliant on anecdotes, is titled A Voyage Around the Queen.
Now comes news of another marvelous royal put-down, with Brown reporting that British politician David Blunkett, who was blind, told him that his assistance dog barked angrily at Vladimir Putin when the Russian tyrant arrived late for a 2003 state event.
Blunkett said he apologized to the queen, who smoothly replied, “Dogs have interesting instincts, don’t they?”
Meanwhile, a former Buckingham Palace staffer has dismissed the claim made about her remarks on Trump.
Speaking on GB News, former royal household member Jack Stooks said: “We know what the queen was like as a person. We know that in her reign, she never put a foot wrong. It’s not something she would do. It’s just ridiculous.
“There are so many ways that these kinds of rumors can come about, but I just can’t see why the queen would have done anything like that or even be inclined to do.
“I don’t see why people think that it’s OK in any way, shape. or form, to try and bring down the late queen’s way of life.
“Throughout her career, she was amazing. And to have somebody trying to ignite some kind of flames into it, it’s not right to do that, especially to the monarchy right now. They’re dealing with so much.”