11 US Presidents and one Queen: whom Elizabeth taught to bake and whom she hugged

It seems that Elizabeth II will outlive more than one US president. How was the relationship between the Queen of Britain and The presidents of America? Donald Trump is the 12th American leader with whom the Queen is personally acquainted. The queen still remembers some of his 11 predecessors with warmth, and she would gladly delete someone from her memories. And this story began with Harry Truman…

In 1951, Elizabeth was still a princess, it was in this status that she flew to the States to meet with President Harry Truman — she replaced her seriously ill father.

They exchanged a lot of pleasantries and compliments about their peoples: Truman expressed admiration for the British, and Princess Elizabeth assured that the peoples of the whole world "look at the United States with love and hope." Elizabeth was accompanied by her husband Philip-America was delighted with the couple.

A year later, Elizabeth ascended the throne — her father, King George VI, died. And in 1957, Queen Elizabeth II visited the United States to pay a visit to the new president — Dwight Eisenhower.

They immediately established good, even friendly relations. For many years, they exchanged letters — not official, but private. It is said that the queen even shared with Eisenhower a recipe for her favorite buns.

In the summer of 1961, John and Jacqueline Kennedy visited the UK-just a few months after the inauguration. Elizabeth gave a reception in their honor.

However, the queen later admitted that during the meeting she felt "pushed into the background". Everyone's attention was focused on Jacqueline. But still, Elizabeth appreciated Kennedy, maintained good relations with him, corresponded. After his assassination, she founded the Kennedy Scholarship and erected a memorial in his honor.

The next American president, Richard Nixon, met with the Queen of Great Britain in 1969. They had known each other before, but then their communication was not official.

Nixon cherished hopes that his daughter Tricia would one day become the wife of the British Prince Charles. His plans were not destined to come true.

The year 1976 was a special one for the United States — the country celebrated the 200th anniversary of independence.

President Ford organized a celebration in honor of the arrival of Queen Elizabeth, during which he assured that he had always tried to strengthen ties between the two countries. He added that it is the duty of every American to honor "the memory of British heritage."

Elizabeth had the most terrible impressions about her meeting with Jimmy Carter. He allowed himself to kiss the Queen Mother on the lips! It was his way of expressing a greeting.

Just imagine how the whole court boiled with anger, especially since it was happening in Buckingham Palace. Needless to say, we didn't have any more business with Carter, and in In London, he became persona non grata. Relations between the United States and the royal couple have become very strained.

It took a whole 5 years before the next American president, Ronald Reagan, could make up for Carter's awkwardness. He made an official visit to London and completely conquered the Queen with his charm.

She even honored the president and his wife Nancy with the honor of spending the night at Windsor Castle, and this is extremely rare. And the queen was so imbued with warm feelings for Reagan that she invited him for a horse ride. The cooperation between the two leaders has become very successful. Reagan helped Great Britain during the Falklands Wars, and as a sign of gratitude for this, the Queen made Reagan an honorary knight.

George Bush and his wife Barbara met Queen Elizabeth in 1989, during a visit to London. The presidential couple had a tour of Buckingham Palace.

And later, Bush also gave the Queen interesting impressions by inviting her to a baseball game: the queen had never been to such events before, and she really liked it. In 2018, when Bush died, Elizabeth II gave a speech calling him " a great friend and ally of Great Britain."

Hillary Clinton went down in history as the first lady of America, who managed to send official birthday greetings to Queen Elizabeth a week before the solemn event. The Queen was upset by the inattention shown.

In general, Bill Clinton had the pleasure of meeting the Queen of Great Britain several times. It was a pleasure: he did not hide that he deeply respected Her Majesty, and wrote about her:

The policy of George W. Bush did not cause approval among British citizens. They showed their disapproval during Bush's visit to London in 2003. Then a special operation was carried out in There were mass riots in Iraq, and in the capital of Great Britain — people protested against the bombing of Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of Englishmen gathered on the path of Bush Jr. However, he safely reached the royal palace, where a salute of four dozen cannons was performed in his honor and a solemn dinner was arranged.

Barack and Michelle Obama, visiting the Queen shortly after the inauguration, were charmed by Her Majesty.

However, Michelle took some liberties, at odds with the protocol: she casually hugged Elizabeth II, demonstrating her spontaneity and sympathy. However, the queen, contrary to expectations, was not offended and also hugged the first lady of the United States in response.

It seemed that in the summer of 2018, the whole of Great Britain was against Trump. Despite such obvious hostility, Trump found it necessary to come to London on an official visit. 250 thousand people took to the streets, loudly expressing their protest.

And yet, Trump saw Elizabeth and the royal family. And he gave his behavior abundant food for gossip: British newspapers published outraged articles for a long time, focusing on the poor attitude shown by the US president to the queen. And how could they write otherwise, if Trump allowed a lot of gross violations of protocol! He patted Her Majesty on the back in a friendly manner, saying:

But physical contact during meetings with the Queen is strictly prohibited. The fact that they forgave Michelle Obama, they did not forgive Trump.