Donald Trump's brutal swipes against Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and visa warning

Donald Trump has had a war of words with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle over the years.

While the Republican Party leader, 78, has always sung the praises of the late Queen and the Royal Family, when it comes to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, it has been a very different story. Trump, who has now been elected the next US President after winning the majority vote, has spent time with many of the royals.

He has always been very complimentary of them - but the same cannot be said for Meghan and Harry. Trump has been very outspoken in his views of the US-based couple, and now their future in America hangs in the balance as he makes plans to move back into the White House. Here, the Mirror looks back...

Meghan hits out

The blunt words between the presidential candidate and the Sussexes go way back - even before Meghan became a member of the Royal Family after marrying Harry. In 2016, when Trump was fighting his first election campaign against Hillary Clinton, Meghan offered her opinion on him.

At the time, she was an actress on the show Suits and she appeared on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore and called him "divisive and misogynistic". She explained: "You don't really want that kind of world."

Skipped visit

Three years later in 2019, Meghan had married into the Royal Family and Trump was invited to the UK on a state visit. However, it coincided with Meghan's maternity leave as she had just given birth to son Prince Archie and she did not take part in the engagements surrounding the visit.

When asked by Piers Morgan, the then-president said Meghan was "very nice" and called Harry a "terrific guy". However, the compliments did not last for long.

'They must pay!'

Of course, Harry and Meghan's time together as working royals did not last long, and in 2020, they dramatically quit their royal roles and left the UK. At first, they headed to Canada but after several months, they took the opportunity to move to Meghan's home state of California. At the time, speculation was mounting over who would fit the bill for the Sussexes' security.

And Trump was adamant it would not be the US government. He tweeted in March 2020: "I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!"

It was later clarified that the couple had no intention of asking for security from the government and would foot the bill themselves.

Election outrage

Shortly after Harry and Meghan moved to California, Trump was up for reelection at the end of his first term in office and went head-to-head with current President Joe Biden. During the campaign, the Sussexes appeared in a video urging Americans to 'vote against hate speech'.

While they did not specifically mention anyone by name, the remarks were interpreted as referring to Trump and, therefore, an endorsement of Joe Biden, with some claiming it was a breach of the Sandringham Summit agreement, which was written up when the couple quit their royal duties in 2020. Later Trump spoke out saying he was "no fan" of Meghan and added: "I wish a lot of luck to Harry, he's going to need it."

Harry swipes

After losing that 2020 vote, Trump then hit out at Harry in several interviews when he was asked about the Royal Family. He told Nigel Farage in 2021 that Harry's marriage had "ruined his relationship with his family" and that it "hurts the Queen".

A year later in 2022, he told Piers Morgan: "Harry is whipped like no person I think I've ever seen and added Meghan will likely leave him "when she decides that she likes some other guy better".

When it emerged a year later that Harry had been invited to King Charles' Coronation and would be attending, he told Farage in another chat: "I was actually surprised that Harry was invited to be honest. He said some terrible things…the book [Spare] was just...to me, it was horrible."

Visa row

Fast forward to recent months, Harry has found himself in the centre of a row over his visa, which allows him to live in California. After admitting to using marijuana, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms in his controversial memoir Spare, a lawsuit from the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation argued that the US Government should release records about the Duke's US visa application to show whether his drug use was disclosed.

Before a ruling was made in the case, Trump raged at the Biden administration for maintaining the privacy of Harry's immigration application in order to "protect Harry." He told the Express US: "I wouldn't protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That's unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me."

Deportation threat

Days later, Trump was also challenged on Harry during an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News. Farage asked if there would be any "special privileges" for the prince, and the Republican said: "No. We'll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they'll have to take appropriate action."

Digging deeper, Farage asked: "Appropriate action? Which might mean…not staying in America?" Trump responded: "Oh I don't know. You'll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago."

Last month, a judge made a ruling in the case saying that Harry's visa documents should remain private. However, the Heritage Foundation has made another court filing saying it was not granted access to private submissions made to the judge by the Biden administration.

The 13-page motion was filed earlier this month and says that the case was 'unique' and complex but adds there is "ample evidence of agency bad faith" meaning this "severely compromises [Heritage's] ability to prepare arguments on appeal".

The lawsuit was originally brought by the Heritage Foundation after a Freedom of Information request for the Duke's records was rejected by the Department for Homeland Security (DHS).

In his bombshell memoir, Harry confessed that cocaine "didn't do anything for me", adding: "Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me." He also recounts an experience with magic mushrooms, saying: "I stared at the bin. It stared back. 'What-staring? ' Then it became... a head. I stepped on the pedal and the head opened its mouth. A huge open grin."

US visa applications specifically ask the individual about current and past drug use, which can have a detrimental impact on the progress of the application. Prolific drug use can lead to applications being rejected, however, immigration officers use their discretion against a range of factors.