The Queen has held audiences with 15 British prime ministers, most recently Liz Truss, but her record reign also spanned 14 US presidents, from Truman to Joe Biden. He met them all, Democrats and Republicans, except Lyndon Johnson. After the monarch died on Thursday at the age of 96, flags at government buildings and US embassies flew at half-mast and commentators noted the undefined but undeniable role she played over seven decades in what has been called “the special relationship” since her first premiership . minister, Winston Churchill. “It’s always been a softening factor in the special relationship,” said Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton. “While prime ministers, as heads of government, had to do business with American presidents, the Queen was the eternal head of state. Seemingly eternal.” America declared its independence from the tyranny of King George III in 1776. The Queen’s father, George VI, became the first reigning British monarch to visit the US in 1939. He discussed the stirring storm of war in Europe with Pres. Franklin Roosevelt. When George VI died in 1952, and Elizabeth ascended the throne while in Kenya on a royal tour, Truman was the sitting president. In 1951 the then-princess and her husband, Philip, had stayed with the Truman family at Blair House, where they were living during a White House renovation. Truman described them as a “wonderful young couple who have so completely captured the hearts of us all.” Truman’s grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, said: “I know he was impressed by her. They were doing well. It was England for over 70 years. I’m sorry, I’m not usually tongue-in-cheek, but I was kind of surprised to hear that he passed away. She was queen all my life and then some.’ Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower, who was Allied commander during World War II, hosted a state dinner for the Queen in 1957. Three years later he entertained Eisenhower at Balmoral, Scotland, where he was so impressed by the powders that the prescription sent him. Blumenthal, biographer of Abraham Lincoln, observed: “Eisenhower was a figure of enormous military and political power for someone in his 20s, and he was followed by someone much closer in age: John F Kennedy. This was also the beginning of a cultural and economic change in Britain itself as the winds of post-colonial change blew.’ Dinner with the Kennedys in 1961 did not go smoothly at first. The Queen was reportedly reluctant to invite First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s sister and brother-in-law because they were divorced, although she eventually relented. Jackie expressed her disappointment that Princess Margarita and Princess Marina were absent. But the prime minister, Harold Macmillan, described the evening as “very enjoyable”. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Prince Philip represented the Queen at the funeral. The sovereign never met Lyndon Johnson, but hosted Richard Nixon at Buckingham Palace in 1969 (when Nixon met her as vice president in 1957, he forgot to bring black tie and had to borrow a suit in “desperation” from another guest , which was full to the top). The Nixon Foundation said in a statement Thursday: “The Queen was a leader of unparalleled ability, a pillar of strength in the Western world who brought inspiration, hope, reassurance and stability to all the countries she ruled and to her friends around the world, for a amazing seven decades”. After Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford invited the Queen to a state dinner at the White House in 1976 to celebrate 200 years of US independence. But Ford made a blunder when he asked the Queen to dance to the song The Lady Is a Tramp. There was another mishap when Jimmy Carter went to Buckingham Palace in 1977. The Queen Mother was quoted as saying that “he is the only man, since my dear husband died, who has had the indignation to kiss me on the lips”. Carter was marginally the Queen’s senior: he turns 98 next month. His wife, Rosalyn, is 95 years old. Ronald Reagan, a former actor who was then the oldest US president in history, became the first to stay at Windsor Castle. He in turn hosted the Queen at his California ranch in 1983 – they both loved horses – and commented in a newspaper interview that she is “a really nice and kind lady” and a “pleasant person”. Queen Elizabeth’s speech made President Ronald Reagan laugh, March 3, 1983 in San Francisco. Photo: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images At a dinner with Reagan in San Francisco, the queen said: “By far the most important idea we share is our belief in freedom… It is an idea whose power is such that some men will go to great lengths to suppress it. . others will keep it alive, as our two countries have fought to keep it alive.” The Queen hosted George HW Bush at Buckingham Palace in 1989 and attended a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with the president two years later. She became the first British monarch to address the US Congress, with Bush remarking that she had been “a friend of liberty for as long as we can remember”. The Queen first met Bill Clinton in 1994 at a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Clinton and his wife, Hillary, stayed overnight on the royal yacht. The president wrote in his memoirs: “Her Majesty struck me as someone who, but for the circumstances of her birth, could have been a successful politician or diplomat. As it was, it had to be both, without seeming to be either.’ Princess Diana, the estranged wife of Prince Charles and a modern-day celebrity, threatened to steal the Queen’s thunder in America before her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997. The Queen soldiered on. She expressed her solidarity with the US after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, declaring in a condolence message: “Sadness is the price we pay for love.” Not for the first time in his career, George W. Bush misspoke in 2007 when he welcomed the Queen to a state dinner, confusing 1776 with 1976 before quickly correcting himself. He paused, glanced at the monarch, and quipped to those gathered, “He gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.” The Queen and Prince Philip with the Obamas, May 24, 2011 in London. Photo: AFP/Getty Images When Barack Obama paid a state visit to Britain in 2011, First Lady Michelle Obama made an obvious blunder by placing her hand on the Queen’s back. In her memoir, Michelle wrote that she later discovered she was “committing what could be considered an epic faux pas,” but the Queen seemed “okay, too, because when I touched her, she just came closer, putting on a glove. hand lightly on the small of my back.” In 2019 the Queen welcomed Donald Trump to Buckingham Palace during his visit to the UK. The President broke protocol by briefly walking in front of the monarch as they inspected her honor guard. Blumenthal dryly commented: “I think there was only one incident of lack of manners and lack of understanding and that, of course, involved Donald Trump. He went ahead of her and she just didn’t understand that he wasn’t the king.” Trump walked past the queen at Windsor Castle, breaking protocol, July 13, 2018. Photo: Matt Dunham/AP Despite the incident, Trump was invited back for a state dinner at Buckingham Palace the following year. He boasted to the Fox News network: “There are those who say they have never seen the Queen have a better time, more animated.” Finally, last June, the Queen welcomed Joe Biden to Windsor Castle. The president said she was “very kind,” adding: “I don’t think she would be offended, but she reminded me of my mother in terms of her appearance and just her generosity.” On Thursday, Biden signed a book of condolences at the British embassy in Washington. In a statement released by the White House, he noted that he had first met the Queen in 1982 after traveling to the United Kingdom as part of a Senate delegation. “Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unparalleled dignity and stability who deepened the fundamental Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States,” he added. “It helped make our relationship special.” America is bitterly polarized on nearly every issue, but Democrats and Republicans remained united on one thing: there was no downside to flirting with the queen. Michael D’Antonio, a political writer and commentator, said: “Presidents loved to be photographed with her. This union would be politically advantageous to almost any president, which is remarkable given our history with England and what changed it in 1776. “But the special relationship is something based on genuine kinship and affection, so if America ever had respect for a monarch, it was respect for Elizabeth.”
