Donald Trump has declared Prince Harry will be ‘on his own’ if he wins a second term this year as president as the royal faces a wrangle over his US visa.
The declaration, delivered at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, DC, Saturday, comes in response to an ongoing legal challenge pertaining to the 39-year-old Duke’s visa application.
It saw the Republican frontrunner bash Harry and his American bride Meghan Markle further, for what called an ‘unforgivable’ betrayal of Queen Elizabeth II.
The pair four years ago famously announced they would end their royal duties to move to California, where Harry is now mulling becoming a permanent citizen.
Trump’s comments, moreover, come as the prince’s immigration status has come under question – as a conservative think tank argues he cannot have legally entered the country due to admitting to taking illegal drugs at the time, in his memoir, Spare.
Trump, in turn, chided Joe Biden’s administration for being ‘too gracious’ to the Duke of Sussex – recalling the lack of legal scrutiny he’s faced since his high-profile move across the pond with US citizen Meghan in 2020.
‘I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgivable,’ Trump, 77, told the Daily Express after addressing onlookers in in Maryland shortly after the South Carolina primary.
‘He would be on his own if it was down to me.’
That said, during his speech seconds before, he made no mention of his GOP rival, Nikki Haley, whom he had just beaten emphatically in the state she once governed.
Instead, over the course of an hour-and-a-half, he sought to paint a bleak picture of the US under Biden’s leadership – billing himself as a ‘political dissident’ and the country’s last hope.
That saw him hone in on, among other things, Biden’s more lax approach to the Sussexes, which he labeled as ‘too gracious to [Harry] after what he has done.’
He went on to bill November 5 – Election Day – as ‘our new Liberation Day’, as Harry’s immigration’s status has become the latest talking point in what’s set to be a contentious election.
‘For hard-working Americans, November 5 will be our new Liberation Day,’ he said, hours after inflicting a more-than 20 point defeat on his only remaining opponent for the GOP nomination.
‘But for the liars, and cheaters, and fraudsters, and censors and imposters who have commandeered our government, it will be their Judgment Day.
‘When we win, the curtain closes on their corrupt reign and the sun rises on a bright new future for America.
‘I believe it’s our last chance.’
He further described the state of the country as a ‘Biden nightmare’ and referred to his opponents as ‘thugs,’ ‘tyrants’ and ‘fascists.’
In the event of a loss, he said ‘hordes’ of migrants would stampede into the US, and that programs like Medicare and Social Security would ‘buckle’ in the ensuing confusion.
He also claimed that law enforcement would continued to ‘hunt’ for conservatives, as he faces multiple court cases alleging fraud and other illicit activities that he claims are the work of his Democratic rival.
‘If crooked Joe Biden and his thugs win in 2024, the worst is yet to come,’ he said, a day after reps from the Republican-led Heritage foundation argued in court that Prince Harry’s entry into the country should never have been sanctioned.
‘Our country will go and sink to levels that were unimaginable,’ Trump continued, before offering his stance on the subject to the UK paper.
His opposition to Prince Harry – and support for the late queen – came as no surprise, given the current administration’s recent decision to block the public disclosure of the Duke’s visa application, after his admission of drug use in his bestselling book triggered the court challenge.
The federal suit claims that the US government should reveal the immigration form to see whether he declared he had taken the drugs to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – actions he owned up to in his bestselling tome.
In it, the Duke – who remains a prince and fifth in line to the throne – wrote that he had taken cocaine, marijuana, and psychedelic mushrooms, all in his youth.
He added that while cocaine ‘didn’t do anything for me’, marijuana ‘really did help me’ during difficult periods of his life as a ‘deeply unhappy’ 17-year-old,
He also revealed that while taking psychedelic mushrooms, he hallucinated that a bathroom garbage bin had grown a head and was staring at him.
On Friday, a lawyer for the Biden administration batted back the think tank’s claims, arguing that the Prince’s admission of taking the drugs in his book was not sufficient ‘proof’ the incidents in question had actually taken place.
The administration further claimed that this account could have been embellished solely to ‘sell books’ – a manoeuvre that, if true, ultimately proved successful, with Spare selling 467,183 copies in its first week in the US alone, and 2.7 million across the rest of the globe.
‘Saying something in a book doesn’t necessarily make it true’, lawyers for the federal government reportedly declared behind closed doors.
The Heritage Foundation, meanwhile, will continue to argue next week that Biden and his cronies are covering up the records, which it says are of “immense public interest” to the people of the United States.
The firm – founded in the 70s before gaining prominence during the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan – further claims the government is attempting tp ‘protect’ Prince Harry and his 42-year-old wife.
Trump, meanwhile, has previously expressed strong support for the late Queen, remaking after her death in 2022: ‘What a grand and beautiful lady she was. There was nobody like her!’
In contrast, he has been somewhat critical of the high-flying Duke and Duchess, describing the former’s memoir as ‘horrible’, and commenting how he was ‘surprised’ the pair were still invited to King Charles’s Coronation last year after their sensational exodus.
Apparently unbothered, Prince Harry told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ earlier this month in response to a question as to whether he might apply for US citizenship.
‘The thought has crossed my mind but is not a high priority right now,’ he said.
He added of his relatives still overseas: ‘I love my family, the fact I could jump on a plane and see him and spend any time with him – I’m grateful for that.’
The Heritage Foundation’s court case, as of writing, remains ongoing.
Trump’s victory in South Carolina – his fourth consecutive campaign success – meanwhile, raises questions about the state of Haley’s campaign.
The only conservative candidate left to combat the former president, she promised to remain in the race even if she lost in South Carolina. As of Saturday night, she has yet to announce anything further.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
