Oh don’t go giving him more ideas. President Trump is hosting King Charles III in Washington today – the first state visit by a King of England since 1939 – and now the Daily Mail is saying that the two are distant cousins. According to royal journalist Robert Hardman, Charles and Trump (through his mother Mary MacLeod) share a common ancestor in the Scottish aristocrat the 3rd Earl of Lennox (1490-1526), who furnished England with its line of Stuart kings.
On learning this the President’s thoughts turned – where else – to real estate. “Wow, that’s nice,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I’ve always wanted to live in Buckingham Palace!!! I’ll talk to the King and Queen about this in a few minutes!!! President DJT”
Cockburn understands that Hardman, who wrote for The Spectator on the Trump-Charles relationship, was due to present these findings to the President personally. The meeting was then canceled after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Admittedly the link is tenuous. Charles and Trump are related in the same way that most people in any given country are distantly related.
Yet Cockburn felt a certain chime of recognition when reading about one of the President’s more illustrious ancestors, who was the 1st Lord Reay and the 14th chief of Clan Mackay. After participating in a number of clan feuds, Mackay led mercenary troops in the service of the King of Sweden during the Thirty Years War, a service which later ended in controversy over unpaid debts. In the opening stages of the English Civil War (or as the Scottish like to call it, the “Wars of Three Kingdoms”) Mackay was forced to sign the Solemn League and Covenant promulgated by Scottish rebels – a religious declaration that he didn’t really believe in. The clan chief lived a life defined by debt and religious flexibility. His name? Donald Mackay.
On our radar
YOU OLD FLIRT In remarks on the White House South Lawn this morning, President Trump said that his mother “had a crush” on Charles III.
OIL BE LEAVING The United Arab Emirates is leaving OPEC on Friday May 1. It was the third largest nation in the group behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
GET TO THE CHOPPER Kid Rock, the rap-metal star currently dating Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, and War Secretary Pete Hegseth took some Apache helicopters out for a spin on Monday.
Hinckley Hilton security subpar, says Hinckley
As a crisis unfolds, a newsmaker’s first reaction is to flick through their rolodex and find the best expert possible to explain the situation. In the aftermath of Saturday’s botched assassination attempt, who better to get a hold of than John Hinckley Jr., the last man to botch an assassination attempt at the Washington Hilton?
Politicos often refer to the hotel as “the Hinckley Hilton” after Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan there in 1981, wounding the president, a police officer, a Secret Service agent and press secretary James Brady. Hinckley carried out the attack in an effort to impress the actress Jodie Foster.
Hinckley told TMZ – who else? – that he found it “spooky” that another presidential assassination attempt had taken place at the same hotel. Hinckley was critical of the hotel’s security and called for it to stop hosting events “because bad things keep happening” and “it’s just not a secure place to hold big events.”
There is an open question as to whether, as President Trump intimated, a rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner will take place “within 30 days.” If it does, you’d have to imagine a venue change might be on the cards for the event planners. Perhaps the committee should consult Hinckley for tips.
CPAC GB first speakers announced
Glorious news from the Old Country: CPAC GB has unveiled its first speakers. One event organizer told The Spectator’s Matt McDonald that “all the big names you’d expect” would be at the confab. And boy haven’t they delivered. They are: defeated Reform candidate Matt Goodwin; ex-head of the Kennedy Center Ambassador Ric Grenell; Shadow Business and Trade Secretary Andrew Griffith MP; Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec, and former Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Organizers highlighted how the line-up showed they are “moving beyond party politics.” A CPAC GB spokesperson said: “CPAC GB will unite voices from across the right to fight back against decline, defend our freedoms and make Britain great again.” A shame the former ministers didn’t try harder to tackle the country’s decline when they were in power…
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