Status, opulence, Diana - Trump's 70-year affection for UK royals
- Published
As Queen Elizabeth's coronation was beamed into living rooms around the world, a six-year-old boy watched intently on a black and white television at home in New York City.
His Scottish mother sat enthralled in front of the screen, not budging for the entire day, which was 2 June, 1953.
That boy was Donald Trump.
Years later, as a real estate developer, he recounted the impact his mother's love of the British royals had on him, in his book, The Art of the Deal.
He got "his sense of showmanship" from her, he wrote, describing her as "enthralled by the pomp and circumstance, the whole idea of royalty and glamour".
That deep appreciation for pomp and ceremony - and his own sense of showmanship - will be on full display when Trump returns to Windsor again during his second state visit to the UK.
The invitation from King Charles was hand delivered by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office, in what was seen as a direct appeal to Trump's love of pageantry at a time when the British government sought crucial trade concessions.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave President Trump an invitation from King Charles in the Oval Office
Trump's visit to the UK will be history-making in its own right - he is the only president to be invited for two state visits, the first being in 2019.
The year before that, he met the late Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle during a working visit and his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, was top of his mind
Trump's former national security aide, Fiona Hill, observed in her book that he often spoke of his mother's admiration of the royal family. Meeting the late Queen Elizabeth II in his first term, she writes, was an obsession of his because it was the "ultimate sign that he, Trump, had made it in life".
Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, with baby Maryanne, Donald's sister, in 1938 in Scotland
Shortly after the historic encounter, he told Piers Morgan in a newspaper interview: "I was walking up and I was saying [to First Lady Melania Trump] 'Can you imagine my mother seeing this scene?' Windsor. Windsor Castle."
His fascination for the royals was clear early in his career too, say those who were around him then.
Wes Blackman, an urban planner who worked with Trump for 10 years in the 1990s and helped him turn Mar a Lago into a private club, remembers the real estate developer trying to "gin up" interest in the club by rolling out Princess Diana's name as a possible member.
Trump was regarded at the time as an outsider, and The Palm Beach Daily News quoted socialites who were more than a little sceptical of the supposed royal interest in Trump's project.
"It sounds like a Trump ploy to gain membership" the paper quoted one woman, Countess Helene Praschma, as saying. Others told the paper that Trump may have offered the royal couple honorary memberships in order to procure their reflected glamour.
A source familiar with the marketing efforts told the BBC that Trump offered Prince Charles a free one-year membership to Mar a Lago. But he received a letter back politely declining the offer, suggesting he could instead make a charitable donation to the Prince's environmental causes. Trump thought it was a "great letter", according to the source.
Mr Blackman also remembers the letter, and how Trump became fixated on it.
"It has always been a big deal to Donald Trump to be seen as successful and a part of history," he said. "He lives off of it."
Donald Trump visited Windsor Castle during a 2018 visit to the UK
During the 1980s, when Trump was trying to make it as a new developer in New York City, the tabloids reported that Prince Charles and Princess Diana were interested in purchasing a $5m (£3.7m) condo in Trump Tower. The rumour, many have said, was probably started by Trump himself.
The Associated Press would later put out a denial from Buckingham Palace that said "there was no truth," to the original report.
Dickie Arbiter, a press spokesman for the late Queen Elizabeth II, said Trump wasn't on the royals' radar at all at that time.
"People have been doing it since the year dot, getting publicity through the royals. They will make outrageous comments and unless it's libellous, the royals won't do anything about it. Never explain, never complain is their mantra," he said.
The incident was addressed by Trump himself in The Art of the Deal but with a slightly different telling. Trump wrote that he got a call from a reporter asking whether or not it was true that Prince Charles had purchased an apartment in Trump Tower.
He noted it was the week when the royal couple had married and were, he wrote, "the most celebrated couple in the world". He claimed he refused to confirm or deny the rumour, but said the press story helped promote Trump Tower.
More than two decades later, he reportedly invited Prince Charles to his wedding to Melania Knauss, which was held in his new 20,000 square foot ballroom in Mar a Lago, a room inspired by a different royal family. When choosing how to model his own club, Trump based it on Louis XIV's Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
Royal watcher Kristen Meinzer says Trump has spent decades trying to style himself in the same mould as the royals and to create an aura around himself as if he was nobility.
"When he bought Mar a Lago, he essentially adopted the coat of arms of the previous owners," she said. "He is styling himself as if he is aristocracy, as if he's royalty, and he has done that his whole career."
Donald Trump and his wife Melania chat with the King, then known as Prince Charles, during a reception at the Museum of Modern Art in 2005
In Trump's eyes, the British throne has a global status that he craves, say some observers.
"They're [British royal family] kind of this apex of high society that he's always wanted to be a part of, so to be with them is to get acceptance and legitimacy," says political scientist Peter Harris, who has written about transatlantic relations.
"The other half of it is he just wants tabloid media… it's both of these worlds in one family," says Mr Harris, an associate professor at Colorado State University.
He can go there and he knows that he's going to get adulation, great photo opportunities, shake hands with the King, and no one will say anything bad to him in their presence, he adds.
One royal especially captured Trump's interest.
In his second book, The Art of the Comeback, he wrote that his only "regret in the women department" was that he never had an opportunity to court Lady Diana Spencer. He said she "lit up the room" and was "a dream lady".
However, according to the former BBC presenter Selina Scott, Trump did try to date Princess Diana after her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996, viewing her as "the ultimate trophy wife". Scott wrote in the paper The Sunday Times that Diana told her Trump gave her "the creeps" and became increasingly concerned as roses and orchids kept arriving at her apartment.
Shortly after her death, in a 1997 interview with the provocative radio jockey Howard Stern, Trump claimed that he could have slept with the late Princess Diana. But in 2016 he denied there was any romantic interest and he just thought her to be "lovely".
His comments on the other women in the royal family have been more critical.
In 2012, he blamed Kate, the now-Princess of Wales, for topless paparazzi shots of her sunbathing on holiday in France.
Trump has also labelled Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, "terrible" and "nasty," while she described him as "divisive" and "misogynistic" during the 2016 campaign.
None of that will colour the state visit, says Mr Arbiter - the royals are used to entertaining all sorts of leaders, and past comments will not faze them.
"The King will make Trump feel welcome and Trump will be like putty in his hands because he likes the whole idea of a state visit and the ceremonial part of it."
As for Trump, he once watched his mother revering the royals - and now 70 years later he's the one sharing the spotlight with them.
Additional reporting by Pratiksha Ghildial