Queen Elizabeth and Donald Trump had a "genuine rapport"

Royal author Robert Hardman writes in Charles III: The Inside Story: "Trump did nothing wrong at all. He arrived exactly on time. It was the Queen who had come out early because she wanted to check the dais and the steps, which were always a concern at that stage of her life.

"You have to remember that this was her first big event since the Duke of Edinburgh's retirement from public duties the year before.

"She wanted to get it right. It was the same inspecting the troops. All through her reign, it would be the duke who escorted the visitor to do the inspection and she hadn't done it before.

"And Trump did the right thing. The visitor is always invited to walk first and she had to gesture to him to go in front. The anti-Trump crowd were determined to find a faux pas. There wasn't one."

A member of the Queen's staff recalled how the monarch - who died aged 96 in 2022 - and Trump, 79, bonded over their Scottish roots.

The royal staffer is quoted in the book, which is being serialised in the Mail on Sunday newspaper: "It wasn't just small talk. They discussed policy matters. He was super charming, on his best behaviour throughout."

It is claimed that the Queen was surprised by Trump's boundless energy.

The member of staff adds: "He would bound up and down the stairs. When Joe Biden came three years later, we had to put him in the creaky old Edwardian lift."

Brown's book claims that the monarch had complained about the President's behaviour to a lunch guest a few weeks after one of visits to the UK.

The author explained: "Over the course of her reign, Her Majesty entertained many controversial foreign leaders, including Bashar al-Assad, Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Donald Trump, Emperor Hirohito and Vladimir Putin.

"She may not have found their company convivial; upon their departure, she may even have voiced a discreet word of disapproval.

"A few weeks after President Trump's visit, for instance, she confided in one lunch guest that she found him 'very rude': she particularly disliked the way he couldn't stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting."