Prince Harry can breathe freely in Montecito, because President Donald Trump has ruled out deporting the self-exiled British royal.
Harry’s immigration status is the subject of litigation in Washington DC, with the Heritage Foundation alleging that he may have concealed past illegal drug use that should have disqualified him from obtaining a US visa.
But the president told The New York Post Friday that he isn’t interested in throwing Harry out of the country.
“I don’t want to do that,” he said. “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”
Trump took the opportunity to praise Harry’s estranged older brother William, with whom he met privately in Paris in December during the reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
“I think William is a great young man,” he said.
The Duke of Sussex and his liberal American wife Meghan Markle have voiced disapproval of Trump over the years, including one outburst in which the Duchess called the president “divisive” and “misogynistic”.
Trump in turn has described Harry as “whipped” by Markle. “I think poor Harry is being led around by the nose.”
Heritage cited Harry’s autobiography “Spare” — in which he admitted to using cocaine, cannabis and psychedelics — when it sued the Department of Homeland Security last year to force the release of his US visa records.
“Anyone who applies to the United States has to be truthful on their application, and it is not clear that is the case with Prince Harry,” Heritage’s Nile Gardiner told the London Daily Telegraph.
The conservative think tank suggests Harry was given preferential treatment by the Biden administration after he and Meghan moved to California in 2020 following their acrimonious “Megxit” split from the royal family.
