Trump says he would take ‘appropriate action’ over Prince Harry visa question on past drug use
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Prince Harry, who has lived in California since 2020, admitted to past illegal drug use in his memoir, Spare.
PHOTO: REUTERS
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
WASHINGTON - Former United States president Donald Trump on March 19 said that if Prince Harry lied on his visa application about drug-taking, Trump would seek to take “appropriate action” if he won November’s presidential election, declining to rule out Prince Harry leaving the US.
Trump’s comments to British right-leaning media outlet GB News came in an interview with presenter and frequent Prince Harry critic Nigel Farage.
US visa applicants are required to make a disclosure about any history of drug use, which can impact their application. Lying on an application can result in penalties including deportation.
Prince Harry, who has lived in California since 2020, admitted to past illegal drug use in his memoir, Spare, after which conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation sued the US Homeland Security Department to access his immigration records.
Earlier in March, a judge ruled in that case that the details pertaining to Harry’s visa application should be handed over to court.
Mr Farage, a long-time Trump ally, asked the Republican presidential candidate if Prince Harry should receive any “special privileges” if he lied in his application.
“No. We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action,” Trump replied.
When asked if that might mean Prince Harry “not staying in America”, the former president replied: “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.”
Since Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle left royal duties and moved to California, they have often railed at their treatment by Britain's royal family.
From an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 to a Netflix documentary series and Harry's book, the couple have asserted that the royals and their aides failed to protect them from a hostile press and leaked negative stories about them.
The couple, who married in 2018, have rarely returned to Britain since their departure for the United States. REUTERS
