This week’s 70th anniversary NATO summit in London didn’t exactly go great for President Donald Trump, although few close observers would likely be very surprised at that. After his team kicked off the week with the announced threat of import taxes up to 100 percent on billions of dollars worth of French goods, once Trump got to the summit, he faced moments like a now viral incident of a member of the British royal family appearing to shrug him off. Although an alternative to disdain for Trump has since emerged as a possible/apparent explanation — the deed was done.
In the viral clip, the United Kingdom’s Princess Anne stands off to the side while a group of the royal family including Queen Elizabeth II greets President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. After the Queen gestures to Anne, she can be seen shrugging and then staying exactly where she’s standing, separate from the Trumps.
Check out the moment:
Is Princess Anne in trouble?
The Queen appears to glance awkwardly at Princess Anne who responds with a shrug 👀🤷♀️ as the royals greet US President Donald Trump and the First Lady at Buckingham Palace.
More here: https://t.co/oHytOtFUl7 pic.twitter.com/KKs9y9BgQe
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 4, 2019
Initially, the wide public perception was that she’d shrugged him off in particular, although one journalist eventually said that the Queen had actually been asking if any more world leaders were coming to greet them. In that scenario, Anne’s shrug would be the response to that question.
No matter, it’s not exactly like Trump has a great public image to begin with. The Twitter account for British GLAMOUR quipped:
‘Princess Anne snubbing Donald Trump has made her officially our favourite member of the Royal Family. *Shrugs*’
Princess Anne snubbing Donald Trump has made her officially our favourite member of the Royal Family. *Shrugs* pic.twitter.com/dMbq2c0Xw5
— British GLAMOUR (@GlamourMagUK) December 4, 2019
As an odd side note, prominent progressive Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) actually complained on Twitter about Anne’s behavior, suggesting that it constituted an affront on Americans at large. To be clear, a majority of Americans actively disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, and they — like in the case of the chants against him at a recent World Series game — would probably also be fine with any other public shaming.
When @POTUS travels outside our country, he represents us to the world. We are all Americans. We should wish him well and want him to succeed. Basic courtesies should be extended to the American President and First Lady. What Princess Anne did was unnecessary and disrespectful. https://t.co/cwOR0hG8iP
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 4, 2019
Despite the apparent more mundane explanation for Anne’s shrug, there was another more clearly anti-Trump moment from the NATO summit that also went viral. Some of a group of world leaders including Anne, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, and others were caught on tape criticizing Trump for his extended, argumentative question-and-answer sessions with reporters. Trump responded by calling Trudeau “two-faced.”
Check out Twitter’s response to Anne below…
