Former President Donald Trump has made plenty of claims that he was loved and well respected by the late Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away in September 2022.
A new book claims the Queen may not have been as fond of the former president as he thinks.
What Happened: Over the years, Trump has said letters from Queen Elizabeth II praised him and he was her favorite president.
A new book by Craig Brown titled "A Voyage Around the Queen," lays out a counterclaim.
The Queen thought Trump was "very rude," according to the book and a report from The Daily Mail.
Among the items she is said to have not liked about Trump was the way he looked over her shoulder "in search of others more interesting."
The book also claims that the Queen said there was "some sort of arrangement" between Trump and his wife Melania Trump, questioning why she would stay married to him otherwise.
"A few weeks after President Trump's visit, for instance, she confided in one lunch guest that she found him ‘very rude,'" the books says.
The duo first met in 2018, a year after Trump became the 45th president. That visit in the U.K. saw protests and the Royal Family declared the meeting as a "working visit" instead of a "state visit" in a potential move to mitigate the blowback.
Reports say Trump did not follow several Royal protocols during his multiple meetings with the Queen including walking in front of her as they inspected the Honor Guard and putting his hand on her back.
The Queen hosted Trump twice in the U.K. during his time in the White House, the initial visit in 2018 and a state visit in June 2019 attended with Melania and four of his five children: Ivanka, Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany.
Following the Queen's death, Trump was among those to speak out about how great she was.
"Melania and I are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II," Trump said.
The former president said he and his wife would "cherish our time together with the Queen, and never forget Her Majesty's generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor."
"What a grand and beautiful lady she was — there was nobody like her!"
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Fighting Back Against the Claims: Trump has consistently said over the years that he was one of the Queen's favorite people.
Trump told The Daily Mail that the claims made in the book were "totally false" and referred to the book's author as a "sleaze bag."
"I have no idea who the writer is, but it was really just the opposite. I had a great relationship with the Queen. She liked me and I liked her," Trump said.
The former president said he spent hours together with the Queen at a state dinner and it's a shame that the book is false.
"I heard I was her favorite president, and you've heard that too. She would say it to a lot of people."
A former Palace aide who worked for the Queen for more than three years dismissed the claims as likely false, according to a New York Post report. The source said Queen Elizabeth II has positive things to say about Trump and his family.
"I spoke to the queen subsequently after the State visit, and other members of the royal household, and she told me she found them to be really gracious and wonderful guests to have in the palace," the former aide said.
The aide said the comments don't sound like something that the Queen would have said.
"I find the whole thing difficult to believe because it wasn't in her character."
Trump's communications director Steven Cheung dismissed the claims made in the book as fake news in a comment to the New York Post.
"This is nothing more than fake news intended to use made-up, salacious fabrications in order to sell copies of a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section," Cheung said.
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