The documentary filmmaker Ivy Meeropol had never heard the name "E. Jean Carroll" when she read the writer's now-famous essay accusing Donald Trump of assault. Meeropol remembers where she was when she saw the piece had been published in New York Magazine. That feature was an excerpt from Carroll's book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, and it described an incident in the mid-1990s in which she said Trump attacked her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman.

I remember the essay's publication, too. Except I knew just who E. Jean was. I grew up reading her and had worked with her at ELLE magazine. She was its advice columnist. I was fresh out of college and dumbfounded to be in her orbit. She was, and remains, one of the most iconic advice columnists of all time. Plus, a towering wit and a hilarious interlocutor. I was walking out of an appointment when I saw a barrage of texts. Had I seen the article? I devoured it in one sour gulp, awed that E. Jean had found the words to describe something so violating without compromising even one iota of her usual flair and humor.

After the article—and her book—came out in 2019, Trump would claim the assault she described could not have happened because E. Jean was not his type. She took him to court over that comment and several others, claiming that his disparagement of her amounted to defamation. Juries agreed. In 2025, a federal appeals court later upheld the $83.3 million judgment against him. It was and remains one of the few times the legal system has managed to impose a real and personal penalty on Donald Trump.

Back in 2019, Meeropol was astounded and impressed. She reached out to E. Jean long before the trial started, hoping to convince her to participate in a film. She succeeded, and the result is the documentary Ask E. Jean, so named after her brilliant and longstanding ELLE column. It's now playing in select theaters nationwide, premiering in May 2026—the same month that news broke that the Justice Department would open a criminal investigation into its subject, exploring whether E. Jean had lied under oath about how she was financing her case against the president. The film has continued to expand to new theaters in the weeks since.

The timing is "suspicious," Meeropol tells Marie Claire. And also frightening and shocking and, in a sense, validating. This film—and its message—matters.

At the beginning of their collaboration, Meeropol remembers E. Jean telling her that one of the things that most hurt her was that Trump had reduced her entire life to three minutes in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. So Meeropol made sure the film is more expansive. It's a recounting of her singular life and career. Her trailblazing work. And of course, her ultimate triumph.

Below, Meeropol tells Marie Claire how she convinced E. Jean to agree to a documentary, the challenge of getting the project off the ground, and how she nailed its tone.

Marie Claire: Let’s start with the obvious: How did this story end up on your radar and why did you decide to make a documentary about it?

Ivy Meeropol: I read the excerpt in New York Magazine from [E. Jean’s book,] What Do We Need Men For? And somehow, I didn't really know who E. Jean was, but I was really struck by how she told that story. It wasn't just about the assault in Bergdorf Goodman. It was about her voice and her writing. I just found it so galvanizing. She has the most distinct voice, and she's hilarious and a vivid storyteller. I was horrified and kind of entertained at the same time. I felt like, God, I really needed that, and who is this person? So that was the hook.

It took a little while to persuade her to even speak with me. A mutual friend actually said to her, “Ivy Meeropol is trying to get to you. You should consider her. You should look at her work.” So E. Jean watched the film I made about Roy Cohn, because that had really just come out the same year. And then she watched my first film, Heir to an Execution, which is so personal [about the execution of my grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]. So it's almost like she got to know me a little bit through that, and then she decided she would speak with me. After that, in true E. Jean fashion, she jumped into it.

MC: You mention the style of her writing, which is so funny and so enraging. Early in the film, there is that moment where E. Jean remembers telling her friend what happened. She says she thought her friend would laugh. You see it almost dawning on her how other people are going to see this story.

IM: Yes, and that's such an important point, because you almost can't say you're laughing without having people say, "Oh, well then you must've been having a good time." It’s a dangerous thing to admit that you were laughing and only to admit it, but to say, "This is totally normal. This is how a lot of women cope."

MC: Totally, but also I think there’s now a pressure on women to tell the worst stories in the worst possible way to make it clear how bad things have gotten. It's almost like we lose a certain kind of right of authorship because the only thing that breaks through is total despair and heartbreak. You obviously decided that you wanted to keep humor in this story, and E. Jean made that same decision. How much did you grapple with the tone of the film?

IM: You're putting your finger on what made the edit and the actual construction of this film so challenging. It was like, Okay, how are we laughing now and then we're crying here or horrified here or enraged? But we had to do that because that's the truth. She's just a brilliant writer. When I started to spend time with her, we were just laughing all the time. She makes me laugh. I sometimes make her laugh. I felt like we needed to see the whole picture.

And why not? I mean, it's not like we've stopped laughing because we've had horror in our lives. That's E. Jean's bigger message in a lot of ways too. She's like, "I'm never supposed to have had fun again?" There isn't one right way to be a victim.

MC: At the same time, the film really makes clear that E. Jean had to put a lot of thought into how she presented herself. She has a hairdresser. She needs to wear the right clothes. Why did you want to include those scenes of her preparing for the trial?

IM: We're not supposed to care about our looks, but everyone cares. And not only that, it was essential for her. The team had to make sure that the jury saw who she was because they were getting all this input from Trump saying, "She's not my type, and she's older." And how do we imagine that she was attractive to him? So she kept showing pictures of her looking incredibly gorgeous. Her clothes became armor.

I could never have predicted, of course, what exactly she would say about it or that it would be so powerful to hear her say, "I had to look fuckable." It's just so E. Jean. When the film screens, you can hear the gasps in the audience. There's uneasy laughter; sometimes cheering. It's real, and it's powerful.

MC: You could have made the film only focused on the trial, but you really told this full story of E. Jean's life and career. I grew up reading her writing, but I had no idea she had a talk show. I didn't know she was on Oprah. How did you decide how to frame her in the documentary and how much to include of her life before the trial?

IM: I really wanted to show that she was ahead of her time and that she really was a self-made woman. She had all these very traditional female roles: cheerleader, sorority sister, beauty queen. She married young, moved to Montana. But the minute she had an opportunity, she was working. She had this dream. She leaves her marriage. She goes to New York. She becomes one of the first female editors at these male-dominated magazines and a gonzo journalist.

I wanted to show that she was someone who was pushing the boundaries for women in that time period and still was subject to this incredible degree of sexism. To me, she was representative. Through her whole experience, we're able to understand this trajectory of feminism. How far we've come, but also where it stops and where it's almost worse than ever, from the exploitation of women and children's bodies to rape culture becoming normalized.

MC: In a way, this story is ongoing. You couldn't have anticipated that the Department of Justice would be opening an investigation into E. Jean. How did you respond to that news?

IM: When I first heard it, I was shocked. I mean, I shouldn't be, but I was. I was worried. I was worried about her. But I do feel like it's even more important that we're releasing this, because he's calling her a liar again—again. This film is the antidote to those accusations. I would like to find one person who comes out of watching this film and doesn't believe her. We use the actual depositions; he's under oath, and she is honest. So yes, I am glad the film is here to meet this moment.

MC: It's expensive to make and release a documentary. We know that so many companies are afraid of running afoul of this administration. Did you find that people were afraid of the story that you were telling?

IM: Well, those dynamics definitely affected how long it took to come together. Look, I had really hoped that I would be able to go to a streamer and get a budget and really just focus on the creative and the hard work of making a film like this. That didn't happen. I don't know if it was fear at that point, because I don't know if he'd fully established himself as this vengeful, erratic, dangerous person. But I do think there was a feeling that people were kind of burnt out on Trump and burnt out on MeToo. I heard a lot, "Its moment is over. It had its moment." But to me this wasn't even a MeToo story. This was a singular story about E. Jean. There was hesitation. I was confronted with it over and over while we were making the film, as we tried to find people who would support us. And when we were locking the picture, there were people who wanted their names off for various reasons—personal, political, a partner or a husband or a wife telling them, "I don't like this. I'm nervous about it."

It had an effect on those of us who stayed put. But it also made us feel even more like, "This is even more important." It just becomes more and more important.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The first call came just before eight o’clock. Then the second, then the third. It was a Monday in May last year, and LaMonica McIver, a 39-year-old first-term congresswoman from New Jersey, stood in the lobby of her hotel in Washington, D.C., frozen mid-step on her way out to dinner. Her attorney, her chief of staff, her colleagues—everyone who kept her life running, flooding her phone like a five-alarm fire. She was being charged with federal crimes—including assault on an officer—over a confrontation with ICE agents during a congressional oversight visit to a detention facility in her district just a few days prior. The charges came courtesy of Alina Habba, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, who was then serving as the top federal prosecutor in McIver’s home state. If convicted, the congresswoman faces up to 17 years in prison.

These people are nuts, McIver thought. They can’t charge me—I didn’t do anything wrong. Seventeen years, her daughter—assault on a federal officer!—for what, doing her job? Habba’s office had floated some threats in the past few days, sure, but threats are the weather in Trump’s Washington, and no sitting member of Congress has ever been charged for conducting oversight. That McIver, who had been on the job for all of eight months, would be the one to change that was laughable. Certainly not at eight o’clock on a Monday; the clerk’s office closes at five. No matter—Habba, resourceful as ever, had simply posted the charges on Twitter and let the courts catch up in the morning.

The shock bought McIver just enough time to do the next normal thing: catch an Uber to Circa, a bistro in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, where a handful of congresswomen were expecting her for dinner. She told herself the charges were a joke, that the whole thing would collapse under its own absurdity, that someone would catch it, fix it, and she’d get on with her life. Instead, the year ahead would bring legal fees approaching a million dollars, racist bile and threats online, confrontations with Republican colleagues in the building where she still shows up to do the job that got her charged in the first place—and a fight that, as of this writing, is still ongoing. The hardest moments orbit a single thought: her nine-year-old daughter, Zaya, who would be 26 by the time her mother came home if the worst played out in the courtroom. It is a conversation she still cannot bring herself to have with her husband. “I sometimes drive myself crazy thinking about the end result of this all.”

McIver didn’t know it yet, standing in that lobby with her phone still buzzing, but the lifeline she’d need would not come from any institutional safety net. It was already at that table she was heading to. In the months that followed, the circle would widen into a network of congresswomen spanning four decades and every level of power in the Democratic Caucus, from Nancy Pelosi and Bonnie Watson Coleman to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. They brought money, legal expertise, their platforms—and once, a bucket of slime for a nine-year-old’s birthday party. Their support stretched from the House floor on Capitol Hill to a federal courtroom in Newark to group chats that never went dark. It needed to, because the Democratic establishment—as McIver would learn the hard way—had no playbook for a fight like this. So the women built one themselves, with the understanding that any one of them could be next.

Marie Claire interviewed 13 congresswomen for this story. What emerged is a portrait of an administration that has shattered every precedent for how it treats its opponents—and a frontline of women who answered with a precedent of their own.

That fall, McIver is sitting in a federal courtroom in Newark, facing two felony counts of assaulting a federal officer and one misdemeanor count of the same, watching her lawyers make the argument that prosecuting a congresswoman for conducting oversight violates the Constitution. The case has reached open court after she pleaded not guilty and her lawyers filed motions to dismiss over the summer. Her life is now a revolving door of legal briefs and caucus meetings, the congresswoman and the defendant living in the same skin. “I don’t get days I can just be in my bed and be depressed,” McIver tells me. “But every day I have to pick myself up.” At school, a classmate recently told her daughter that her mom was going to jail. McIver responded with the simplest version of the story she could muster: “I’m in a battle against Donald Trump right now.”

But she is not alone, not in this courtroom. In the rows behind her are congresswomen who have no district-level reason to be in Newark on a Tuesday morning: Ilhan Omar, Jasmine Crockett, Sara Jacobs, and Yvette Clarke. Before the hearing, they had told McIver’s chief of staff they were going to speak to the crowd outside before going in, “and then we’re going in and we’re going to sit there.” The congresswomen understood that silence from colleagues could read, to the public, as its own kind of verdict. Letting McIver appear to stand alone was “a non-starter,” Crockett would later tell me, and Jacobs wanted “LaMonica to know she wasn’t alone in that room.” It worked: McIver sat facing forward the whole time, but she could still feel them behind her. “That helped me feel at least a little sigh of relief,” she says. “I’ll never forget that.”

In the months leading up to that court date and since, a network of congresswomen has made McIver their business. Emilia Sykes sends her Reels all night long. Lateefah Simon walks to her seat on the House floor every day just to be near her—“an energy transfer,” she tells me, “just to get some of that goodness.” Pramila Jayapal’s support always starts with a hug—“a physical, ‘I’m here for you’”—followed by the same question: “What do you need from me?” Jahana Hayes checks in before every recess and after every return. But what McIver has also come to learn is that beyond this circle, the support largely ends. The party’s national organizations—the DCCC, the DNC—have no system in place for a situation like this. What hurts “bigger than the charges,” McIver tells me, “is the support that I just have not gotten.”

McIver hadn’t always had a network to fall back on. In September 2024, she walked onto the House floor for her swearing-in, sporting a teal suit, round tortoise glasses, and a healthy dose of holy shit. Until recently, she had been a city councilwoman in Newark, fighting for federal housing dollars from the other end of the phone. Now she was here, having won a special election to fill the seat left by the late Donald Payne Jr., making her the first Black woman to represent the district and the youngest woman New Jersey had ever sent to Congress. She stood at the podium, one hand on the Bible, and took the oath. Her husband and their then-eight-year-old daughter watched from the gallery.

“I have to remind myself like, ‘Girl, you’re The Congresswoman!’” McIver tells me, smiling and shaking her head. We are at a café tucked inside a historic banking hall in Lower Manhattan, all vaulted ceilings and marble pillars, the city muted behind tall glass windows. “I was taking it in, but it was hard to believe that it was happening.” Pelosi came up to welcome her: “And I’m like, welcome to me?” Then Maxine Waters said hello and she short-circuited again. “Are you talking to me?!”

Sweet. Now figure it out. Since she’d won a special election, there was no freshman orientation or transition period. She was voting within the hour, and by the next morning, she was sitting in a Homeland Security committee hearing with no idea what was on the agenda. She lost count of the number of people who assumed she was someone’s new staffer. “You get thrown into the fire,” she says. “They’re like: ‘swim your way through on your own.’ You don’t even know how to swim.” Congress is also, she discovered quickly, a building full of cliques. “People have their favorites, they have their regulars. If you haven’t been here for a long time and you’re a newbie, that’s hard to navigate.”

McIver was not the first woman to come to Congress without the usual pedigree and find herself alone in it. Just ask Ocasio-Cortez and Omar, who arrived in Washington to enormous public fanfare but almost no institutional guidance. “When you don’t come in with a conventional political background, no one’s grooming you, no one’s mentoring you, no one’s showing you what to do,” Ocasio-Cortez tells me. “You’re kind of left on your own.” When I ask Omar about those early days, she smiles like she can still see herself trying to figure it out. “This town is strange,” she tells me. “I cannot overstate just how incredibly challenging it is to come here without connections to the institution.”

For Black women in particular, the challenge compounds, in part because there are still so few of them. Crockett is only the 56th Black woman ever elected to the House. “We are still very, very, very new to this body,” she tells me. “When I was [McIver’s] age, I never could have imagined doing the things that she has done already.” But McIver was there, figuring it out—young, new, Black and without the kind of safety net that would matter most when everything went sideways.

Enter Watson Coleman. Eighty-one years old, a stalwart of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the only other Black woman in the New Jersey delegation, she had been close with McIver’s predecessor and spotted his successor on sight. “I just kind of took ownership of her,” she tells me. “Come sit here, come sit with us.” Watson Coleman had played a similar role for Ayanna Pressley years earlier, and when she told Pressley about the young woman coming to fill Payne’s seat, Pressley reached out immediately. She pulled McIver aside and asked if she knew where to get her hair done in Washington: “Would seem a strange question for the woman with alopecia who has no hair, but that wasn’t always my reality.”

The Congressional Black Caucus brought others into her orbit—and a second home base emerged through the under-40 dinners, where, as Jacobs tells me, the youngest members of Congress get together to “commiserate” about the particular indignity of their place on the generational totem pole. At her first dinner, McIver had the whole table in stitches: “Those relationships just grew over time,” she tells me.

McIver was finding her footing, but she had come to Washington to work on what she calls her “love languages”—housing and affordability, issues she’d been reckoning with long before she was legislating them. The oldest of four and the first in her family to go to college, McIver was raised by a mother who struggled with substance abuse, and had watched what happens to a neighborhood when the federal investment doesn’t come. Her entry into politics came at ten, passing out campaign literature for her fifth-grade teacher, Ras Baraka, the future mayor of Newark, who would help shepherd her career from city council to council president to Congress. By November, she was holding town halls, planning legislation around childcare and federal housing funding, and feeling like the work was finally beginning.

Oh, and Kamala Harris was definitely going to win the election. “We’re going to have this first Black woman president,” she remembers thinking. “It’s going to be wonderful and things are going to be great.”

Within weeks of Trump’s second inauguration, the administration’s immigration crackdown landed in McIver’s district. Executive orders were “flowing out of the sky, like Skittles,” she tells me—ICE raids in Newark, parents afraid to send their kids to school. When a private detention center called Delaney Hall opened without proper clearance from the city, and lawyers couldn’t reach clients detained inside, McIver, Watson Coleman, and Congressman Rob Menendez decided to visit on May 9th.

In the accounts McIver and Watson Coleman gave me of what happened next, the details come fast and out of order, the way memories do when the body takes over. What they agree on is this: they arrived around 1 p.m. and waited over an hour to get inside while ICE agents filled the waiting room. Mayor Baraka, who had been trying for weeks to inspect the facility himself, arrived for a press conference the members had planned for after the tour. A guard let him onto the premises—and then government agents confronted him and accused him of trespassing. Baraka agreed to leave and walked out through the gate, but agents moved to arrest him anyway, on orders from the deputy attorney general. The three members rushed toward the mayor, urging them not to, and a scuffle ensued. McIver grabbed the back of Watson Coleman’s trench coat to keep her from falling and reached toward Baraka with her other hand. Agents in tactical gear were pulling and pushing, one with a gun drawn. “Please do not touch us. We are federal officials,” McIver kept saying. Baraka was arrested and taken away.

The members were shaken by the incident, and McIver’s side was sore from all the shoving, but none of them thought it would go further than that. In fact, they completed the tour—were allowed to, even after all of it—escorted by ICE agents through a facility where the elevator was malfunctioning, the phones didn’t work, there was no smell of food, and women detained inside told them they couldn’t connect with their lawyers or get medical care. Of the two and a half hours they spent at Delaney Hall that day, the government’s case against McIver would come to rest on 68 seconds of body-camera footage. The images are murky, but federal prosecutors say they show her slamming her forearm into an agent trying to handcuff the mayor. Watson Coleman, who was inches away through all of it, is unequivocal about what she saw: “I didn’t see her go after anybody. I didn’t see her assault anybody. I just saw her protecting us and using her body and her arms to keep people away from us.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey declined to comment for this story.

Two networks activated the night the charges dropped: one physical, one virtual. At Circa, a handful of congresswomen were already working the problem before McIver walked through the door—Crockett, a criminal defense attorney, was running through statutes in her head, Sykes thinking through logistics for McIver’s daughter and her schedule, Hayes ready to tell her she wouldn’t be facing this alone. McIver walked in and saw their faces. “They done heard the news too by now,” she says, laughing. Meanwhile, the Democratic Women’s Caucus group chat—“probably the fastest place to tap into a network that gets galvanized super quick,” according to Omar—was lighting up. What do you need? How can we help?

Ocasio-Cortez was on the phone with McIver shortly after seeing what she described as “bat signals” on the group chat, and her call came with a directive: “You’re going to need money.” She was right. Members of Congress cannot accept pro bono legal defense for cases like this, and no institutional fund exists to cover one. “LaMonica was one of the first members of Congress to take on ICE and put literally herself and her body on the line,” she tells me. “A pat on the back and congratulations and praise is not enough. If a woman is going to take risks, she needs money, resources, and solidarity, period.” She helped McIver raise over $15,000.

Pelosi moved to the mechanics. She had known McIver’s district long before McIver held it—Donald Payne Sr. was a dear friend, and she had campaigned for him there; when his son inherited the seat and then passed, she felt a responsibility to whoever came next. She donated immediately, then urged McIver to set up a legal defense fund so supporters could give beyond what campaign contribution limits allowed. “That’s how they want you to feel your pain,” she told her. “Not only do we love you and care about you, but let us tangibilize that.”

The funding and the strategy have been critical to McIver as a defendant. What’s held her together as a person, though, is the daily rhythm the women fell into afterward. “It’s really been a strong base of women who have really been amazing,” McIver says, “and I feel like I can count on.” Prayer Zooms, baby pictures exchanged on the House floor, hugs in the hallways, heads-ups on legislation before her own staff sees it. On the group chat, when McIver mentioned needing slime for her daughter’s birthday goody bags, an alarming number of congresswomen immediately reported for goop duty.

“I think that they thought they could move in ways that are cruel, targeted, and unprecedented, and that maybe no one would care,” Pressley tells me. They were wrong. It endures, she says, “in the pull-asides on the House floor that are just a check-in. It endures with early morning and late night phone calls. It’s essential to our sanity.” Crockett, who has told McIver she plans to make herself available to her legal team after she leaves Congress in January, is blunt about why: “I have trust issues and I look at her as my own family. That’s how serious this is for me.” Pelosi, for her part, sums up the entire pact in three words: “With you, babe.”

Through all of it, McIver has kept showing up—voting, legislating, flying home to her family on weekends. The pace, she tells me, is its own kind of mercy. “I’m busy working, but also I’m momming and trying to do everything else. You kind of don’t really have a lot of space to self-pity party every day.” Watson Coleman, who sits near her on the House floor, watches her do it week after week. “It doesn’t stop her from speaking up, and she’s there to do her job every day,” she says, pausing. “But I know that in her quietest hours, the possibility of the absurdity of all this has got to weigh on her.”

McIver is on a train home from Washington in December, texting a senior staffer about going to prison. The motions to dismiss that her lawyer had filed over the summer had been denied, and the road ahead had gotten longer. “I don’t have a ton of faith,” she writes in messages shared with Marie Claire. “I’m just a Black girl from Newark. It honestly means nothing to this DOJ, this president to throw me in jail, let alone find me guilty. It’s a scary thought, but I’m preparing myself for the worst.” Her staffer sends her a heartbreak emoji and McIver shoots back with heart hands.

The charges are no longer breaking news, yet the case still follows her everywhere. Hateful messages pour in from strangers online; her husband makes the mistake of reading the comments and can’t unsee them. “Our families don’t deserve to be drowned in what we do,” McIver tells me. During a House Homeland Security hearing earlier this year, Republican congressman Eli Crane of Arizona noted, without naming her, that a member of the panel had assaulted an ICE agent. McIver fired back: “Mr. Crane, I don’t know what your obsession is with me, but I am so tired of you mentioning me, and you should take that obsession and need to put it to the people of Arizona.” And while not a single sitting Republican has publicly spoken out in her defense, one Republican congresswoman recently pulled McIver aside and asked if the charges were still happening. When McIver said yes, the woman told her: “That’s some BS.” McIver was stunned. “I wanted to say, ‘Why don’t you say that out loud?’” she tells me.

The women she works with can hold the edges together, but they can’t make the charges disappear. And while the love is real, so is the fury. Every congresswoman I spoke to has taken McIver’s case as a warning. “Today is LaMonica,” Clarke says, “tomorrow it’s me.” Omar calls the precedent “very scary.” Crockett calls it “bullshit.” “Their goal is intimidation and the financial strain, the mental strain,” she says.

None of the them think it’s a coincidence that the charges landed on McIver. “They knew she was going to be effective,” Pelosi tells me. “She came in, she was young, she was [in the] minority. They’re going to take her down.” She has been on the other end of it for decades. “I knew what I was getting into, and I knew that all the things that they did to paint me as a devil—with cloven feet and fangs and flaming hair—and the rest of that, which led to the assault on my husband,” she says, pausing. “I wish they had gotten me instead of him.”

Clarke names another layer: “This administration has made it a point to go after Black women in authority. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about that.” Simon pulls the lens further back, past the incident and the administration, to the building itself: “I don’t know if the founders ever imagined Black women being in the dome with these jobs that we have. Enslaved Americans helped to build the Capitol, but I think we still feel that at a cellular level.”

The administration created the crisis. But the party, it turned out, had no system in place to meet it. When another member was threatened months after McIver was charged and came to her asking how she’d found a lawyer—“Is it the DCCC?”—McIver had to tell her the truth: “No one helped me. We did this on our own. And there was no system set in place.” Sykes has tried to sound the alarm. On a call with Democratic leadership, when the chair started urging members to fight harder, she cut in: LaMonica did that, and now she’s looking at 17 years. “Now what’s the next thing we’re going to cheer on,” she says, “and who’s the next person we’re going to sacrifice so that we can say you all fought appropriately?”

Ocasio-Cortez puts it in terms anyone with a job would understand: “It is a total failure and an indictment of our systems that this member has to fundraise for the legal defense of conducting her own constitutional responsibilities. Imagine showing up to your job and someone sues you personally for doing your job. That’s supposed to be the company.” McIver, she says, was asked to take a risk and then left to carry the cost alone: “Once you’ve stuck your neck out and done a courageous thing, you are largely left to fend for yourself.” But she’s done accepting that. “I just don’t want to live in that world anymore—so we started by building it with each other.”

There is a theory, shared by more than one of the women I spoke to, about what the building they work in does to the people inside it. “If you are already a kind and genuine and decent person, you will be more kind and more genuine and more decent because the environment calls for it,” Hayes tells me. “If you are not, just walking on these hollow grounds is not going to make you that person. Congress reveals who you are.” Omar has watched McIver prove it. “She is still so soft and so graceful,” she tells me, “because this place does destroy people.”

McIver’s case is now before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are set for June 24—the last chance to get the charges dismissed before a trial, barring an appeal to the Supreme Court. She is still raising money for her defense, still working, fighting, and planning her life around the possibility that she could lose it. Despite everything, she has brought back over $10 million to her district for community projects. “When you have an administration who’s working so hard to stop you from doing the work on behalf of the people that you represent, I take that personally,” she tells me. “‘Nothing has faded.”

None of the women are ready to entertain the worst-case scenario for McIver. “If that were possible, that means that our whole system is completely broken,” Watson Coleman tells me. But if it ever did come to that, she adds, McIver’s daughter Zaya “would grow up to be the next generation of it, because she would be so fortified by community and family.”

Simon told me about a picture McIver carries of her daughter—“the cutest little girl in the world, with these little cute glasses.” Zaya has since seen the Delaney Hall footage on the news, McIver says. She looked at her mother and said: “Mom, if I would’ve been there, I would’ve had your back.” McIver told her that wasn’t necessary. “Girl, I had it by myself.” But her daughter held her ground.

She sounds, McIver might notice, a lot like some women she works with.

King Charles and Queen Camilla recently completed a visit to the United States, where they spent time with Donald and Melania Trump. During the trip, The King delivered a speech to the United States Congress, in which he made some pointed political remarks.

The Daily Mail's royal editor, Rebecca English, said of the royal visit, "The monarch's trip has widely been lauded as a triumph in helping to revive the so-called special relationship [between the U.K. and the U.S.], while gently delivering some home truths to Trump on contentious issues."

A royal aide told English, "The word historic is much overused and we always hesitate to use it in the palace but I think one could use that term for this visit...It was a high-stakes address to Congress."

English subsequently noted that "The King took the bull by the horns and raised issues including the role of NATO at a time when Trump has shown nothing but contempt for the alliance."

As for why King Charles chose to discuss such challenging issues, the royal aide explained, "It's a measure of how much he personally cares."

The royal aide elaborated on why King Charles decided to cover difficult issues, which could have negatively impacted his relationship with Trump.

"First, what The King says will always be guided by the truth," the aide shared. "Two, it will be guided by conscience. And three, they're all observable facts. Everything that is in that speech is an observable fact. So, I think we felt very comfortable with The King speaking as he did."

Luckily, King Charles's visit to the United States appeared to strengthen his bond with Trump.

"Given some of the issues that have presented themselves, you'd think it might all be a bit tricky," the royal source told the publication. "But far from it."

The royal aide continued, "The warmth you see in public is absolutely the warmth you see in private. That meeting in the Oval Office, there was an awful lot of warmth and laughter."

In spite of any potential disagreements, Charles and Trump appear to have a positive working relationship.

Royal biographer Robert Hardman was granted a special audience with Donald Trump during this week’s U.K. state visit to the White House, and during his private meeting with the president, the author gained insight on the success of The King and Queen's trip.

Hardman previously met President Trump at Mar-a-Lago while he was researching his new book Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story, and was invited to present the president with a finished copy. Writing for the Daily Mail, the royal author said that he met with Trump the evening before The King and Queen departed, and the president had nothing but positive things to say about Their Majesties.

“We've done a good job with the King, right?” President Trump told Hardman, who replied “that the British team seem overjoyed by the success of this trip.”

The president then summed up the state visit in three words, stating, “It's been unbelievable.”

“He's a great guy, he really is,” Trump said of King Charles, with Hardman adding that the president also gave “warm tributes to the Prince and Princess of Wales.”

According to the outlet, Prince William and Princess Kate have been extended an invitation to the White House this summer, and Trump told Hardman, “William, he'll be a good King, won't he? He's very nice. A great guy. I like him.” Trump was also full of praise for Princess Kate, asking the author, “How's she doing? She's so great. She was sick, people said crazy things about her and she was so brave.”

In his book, Hardman shares details on Trump's first state visit to the U.K. with Queen Elizabeth, and the author shared that section with the U.S. president during his visit this week.

“I pointed out that she had found him, according to those close to her, 'charming, tall, tanned, big, courteous, mid-century' and also 'amusing,'” Hardman said. As for the president, he replied, “'I've had better,” adding, “and I've certainly had worse.”

Queen Camilla might have skipped a tiara for a dazzling state banquet at the White House on April 28, but she certainly brought the bling. Wearing the historic amethyst necklace and earrings once belonging to Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, The Queen stole the show as she joined King Charles, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. Queen Camilla’s lack of tiara might have disappointed some royal fans, and former royal butler Grant Harrold says the president could’ve been one of them.

“I think this is just Queen Camilla’s modern take on things,” Harrold, who served The King and Queen between 2004 and 2011, says. “Tiaras aren’t a thing in the States, they’re very much something of a bygone era—so I imagine Camilla just wanted to reflect this with her look for the historic dinner.”

Speaking on behalf of Slots Temple, Harrold adds, “I think Trump might have been a bit disappointed as he likes all the royal glitz and glamour.”

The former royal butler continued that Queen Camilla’s sense of humor would have carried her through any awkward moments. “Him being the way he is, I imagine he might have asked her where it was. She’s great with this kind of stuff, so would have just made a joke out of it.”

Although tiaras aren't an American tradition, Harrold notes that Queen Elizabeth still wore one when traveling across the pond. “She loved wearing them, so wore them whenever the opportunity was there. It was never really a discussion for her,” he says. However, Harrold adds that Queen Camilla's role is also “different to that of her late mother-in-law.”

“While they both have the title Queen, Elizabeth was the monarch while Camilla is married to the monarch. So there is a big status difference,” he adds.

As for Queen Camilla's jewels, the incredible amethysts made a statement without a tiara. “These are substantial gemstones, and the size gives the necklace real presence,” Nilesh Rakholia of jeweler Abelini tells Marie Claire. “There’s a balance between opulence and restraint, which is what allows it to work so effectively in a formal setting.”

Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles and Queen Camilla will travel to the United States to mark the country’s 250th anniversary of independence later this month, with the royal couple due to visit between April 27 and 30. President Donald Trump has been a longtime admirer of the Royal Family, and on the latest episode of the Sun’s Royal Exclusive show, royal expert Samara Gill said The King could be the key to repairing relations between the two countries.

“I mean, this will be his most important task to date as the King,” Gill said. Noting that “we’ve got the world on a knife’s edge at the moment, sort of teetering on World War Three,” the TalkTV presenter says King Charles could step in to ease tensions.

“I’m not trying to be over dramatic here,” Gill continued. “But yes, Trump is unpredictable…The King is pretty much the only person that he actually listens to.”

Donald and Melania Trump visited Britain in September 2025 after taking part in a prior state visit during the president’s first term. President Trump shared his excitement to see The King and Queen again later this month, writing on X, “I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect. It will be TERRIFIC!”

Although the full itinerary for The King and Queen's trip hasn't been released yet, President Trump noted that they'll be attending a state dinner at the White House on April 28. United States House Speaker Mike Johnson also announced that The King will “address a Joint Meeting of Congress” ahead of the glamorous White House banquet.

Sources involved in the planning of The King's state visit recently told the Telegraph that the trip “can't come quickly enough” amid tensions between Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“If you think about it, he listens to no one, Trump,” Gill told the Royal Exclusive show. “The King is going to have to do diplomatic gymnastics here in order to pull something off.”

After months of speculation, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles and Queen Camilla’s U.S. state visit will officially be moving forward in late April. The King and Queen will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States during the trip as well as “the historic connections and the modern bilateral relationship” between the two countries. But along with visiting the States, King Charles will also make history during a surprise solo visit to Bermuda.

According to Buckingham Palace, King Charles will “continue to Bermuda” after his time in the United States—and his trip will mark the first royal visit by a reigning King to the island in history.

Although the palace didn’t confirm dates for either state visit, Bermuda’s government posted a since-deleted graphic on X announcing the monarch would be traveling to the island from April 30 through May 2. President Trump then posted on X that he was "pleased" to welcome Their Majesties from April 27 through 30.

Bermuda's official government account then shared a new photo and announcement without dates, writing that The King’s visit will be “an opportunity to celebrate the many contributions Bermudians make in their communities, the wider British family in Bermuda and around the world.”

The King previously visited Bermuda just once, traveling to the island in 1970 when he was 21, while the late Queen's last visit to Bermuda was in 2009.

Further details of The King and Queen's trip to the United States will be announced in the coming weeks, but President Trump noted that Their Majesties will be attending “a beautiful banquet dinner at the White House” on the 28th.

The U.S. president and first lady last visited Britain in September 2025, where they joined The King, The Queen, Prince William, Princess Kate and other senior royals for a state banquet at Windsor Castle.

King Charles and Queen Camilla's U.S. trip comes amid tensions between the two countries due to the conflict in Iran. However, President Trump posted a message on social media expressing his excitement about The King and Queen's visit, writing, “I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect. It will be TERRIFIC!”

The status of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit to the United States has been in limbo for weeks, but according to U.S. political outlet Punchbowl News, a formal announcement is expected within days. Sources told the news site that the White House will release plans for the state visit “this week,” and that congressional schedules have been shifted to accommodate The King’s historic trip.

Sources involved in the planning told Politico that The King will “address Congress in a joint meeting the week of April 27,” marking the first time a British monarch has done so since Queen Elizabeth in 1991.

“​​The House will now be in session the last week of April, a change from the previously announced schedule,” Punchbowl News reported. President Donald Trump will also host a formal state dinner for his royal guests at the White House, although the president’s plans for a new ballroom won’t be complete for The King.

The three-day royal visit, planned to coincide with the 250th birthday of the United States, is expected to include a stop in New York City as well as Washington, D.C., per sources.

Questions about whether the state visit will happen have been swirling in recent weeks amid tensions between the United States and Britain.

"At a time when Trump has launched an illegal war that is devastating the Middle East and pushing up energy bills for British families, it's clear this visit should not go ahead," said Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey, per the BBC.

However, others have suggested that since President Trump greatly admires The King, his trip could help repair relations between the two countries.

Some U.K. politicians aren’t convinced. "The last thing that we want to do is have His Majesty embarrassed," Emily Thornberry, a Labour MP, told the BBC.

President Donald Trump has been anticipating a historic state visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla in late April, with sources telling the Telegraph that the state visit "can't come quickly enough" to help mend relations between Britain and the United States. But despite reports from multiple outlets discussing details of the trip, the Prime Minister has yet to confirm one is even taking place.

Per the BBC, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesperson was asked about The King's travel plans on Monday, March 9, he replied, "No state visit has been confirmed yet." The comment comes after U.K. government leaders criticized a potential trip to the United States amid tensions following Trump’s military action in the Middle East.

"At a time when Trump has launched an illegal war that is devastating the Middle East and pushing up energy bills for British families, it's clear this visit should not go ahead," said Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey, per the outlet.

"A state visit from our King would be seen as yet another huge diplomatic coup for President Trump, so it should not be given to someone who repeatedly insults and damages our country," Davey added.

However, the Daily Mail reports that cabinet minister Steve Reed told BBC Breakfast that he didn't find Davey's comments to be "appropriate."

"I don't think it's for Ed Davey to decide what the King should or shouldn't be doing," he said. "And I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on his arrangements either."

A source told the Telegraph last week that diplomatic relations between the U.S. and U.K. have hit an “all-time low” due to ongoing trade tariffs and the situation in the Middle East. Per the BBC, President Trump called Starmer "no Winston Churchill" last week, stating the British prime minister only wanted to "join wars after we've already won."

With King Charles and the rest of the Royal Family sharing a cordial relationship with President Trump, it's been suggested they hold the key to repairing the "special relationship" between the two countries.

However, with no official confirmation from either the U.K. government or Buckingham Palace, the trip remains in limbo.

Multiple reports indicate King Charles and Queen Camilla are in the midst of planning an official visit to the United States in April, although nothing has been confirmed by the palace just yet. One source told the Telegraph that diplomatic relations between the U.S. and U.K. have hit an “all-time low” amid trade tariffs and the tensions in the Middle East—making it the perfect time for a royal visit from The King to help mend the “special relationship.” But insiders have suggested that it’s Prince William and in particular, Princess Kate, who can pull off a diplomatic “coup” with a trip across the pond.

Per the Times, The King and Queen are reported to be making a three-day visit to the States beginning April 28, including stops in Washington, D.C., New York, and a third, undisclosed city. A source “familiar with negotiations over the potential visit” told the Telegraph that the trip “can’t come quickly enough,” while a government source told the outlet, “If they could bring it forward, they would.”

President Donald Trump has held a longstanding fondness for the Royal Family, and a source told the Telegraph that aside from some royal goodwill, “there is no other way” to fix the relationship between the two countries at the moment. But if King Charles and Queen Camilla aren’t enough, Prince William and Princess Kate could step in as the family's “Trump cards.”

The Prince of Wales is already rumored to be planning a trip to North America for the World Cup this summer, and it’s been suggested that Kate—and potentially their children—could come along. According to the Telegraph, “The White House is understood to be very keen for them to visit.”

Should William and Kate attend a glittering state dinner like the one Princess Diana and Prince Charles attended at the White House in 1985—when Diana famously danced with John Travolta—it would be a “blockbuster event,” the outlet suggested.

“Should her son and his wife stage a photocall of similar impact, it would represent a coup for their potential hosts,” the Telegraph reported. With diplomatic circles referring to the Royal Family as “The Trump Whisperers,” such a moment could make all the difference, sources noted, especially since President Trump requested to sit next to the Princess of Wales during his September visit to Windsor Castle.

As of the moment, no official dates are penned in the books for any of the royals to visit, but it’s been suggested that a trip for William and Kate would likely occur around the July 4 holiday in the United States.

Last fall, it was reported that King Charles and Queen Camilla were planning to head to the United States to commemorate the country’s 250th birthday. Now the Times has exclusively reported that The King and Queen will travel to Washington, D.C., New York and a third, yet-to-be-announced city beginning April 28.

A source told the outlet that the trip will begin in Washington and include a dinner with President Trump, although there will not be a press conference scheduled during The King and Queen’s visit to D.C.

No details about the rest of the trip have been revealed, but a palace source noted that information will “be announced at the appropriate time.”

Although Queen Elizabeth visited the United States for double the amount of time during the nation’s 1976 bicentennial, The King and Queen’s trip will last just three days.

Per the Times, “the shorter duration” of their visit is “partly out of consideration for The King’s health and stamina, rather than nervousness about reaction to the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor scandal.” King Charles has been receiving cancer treatments since 2024 and at 77, is 27 years older than his mother was when she took her 1976 trip to the United States.

The “slimmed-down” trip is also the same length as President Trump’s 2025 state visit to the U.K.

Prince William is also in talks for his own U.S. trip during the World Cup this summer, with a source close to the event previously telling the Sun, "Wills is planning to come to the U.S. and we have been told to prepare for what a trip would entail. Interactions between security services and U.K./U.S. intelligence teams are in progress."

The Times noted that “there are still discussions” involving a potential June/July visit for William, which could also include World Cup host countries Mexico and/or Canada.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom leads me through her Sacramento home on a gray mid-December morning, replaying the first few years as California’s first family in quick, vivid scenes: This is where her son used to sprint to the backyard. That’s where her daughters played with their ever-expanding menagerie of cats, ducks, sheep and chickens. Here’s the bedroom where Koa, their Australian shepherd, darted out, a surprise on the carpet in his wake. We’re inside, then out, the house giving way to the yard, the yard folding back into the house.

Newsom, 51, is a filmmaker, and she moves like one. She’s light on her feet—talking fast, laughing easily—guiding me from room to room like she’s cutting between takes on set. For Newsom, the house is less a place than it is a feeling. “We had incredible memories here; we raised our children here,” she says. The family moved to the Fair Oaks home in 2019, a few months after Gavin Newsom was sworn in as California’s governor. But as the kids got older and school pulled them toward the Bay Area, they moved to Marin County—a two-hour drive away—and the Fair Oaks house turned quiet, becoming little more than a crash pad for work and events.

“The past seven years have been full of so many challenges,” she says. “This was sort of an oasis that really nurtured us and gave us the energy and the clarity of what really matters, what’s really important, and then refueled us so that we could go back out into the world and fight the good fight.”

The good fight has reached a turning point. Outside these walls, the country is louder and more volatile than it was when Newsom first stepped into public life. There have been wildfires and protests, a pandemic and a recall campaign, a hostile political climate, and a White House that casts her home state as hostile territory and her husband as Public Enemy Number One. Governor Newsom has responded by suing the administration, challenging executive orders, and trolling President Donald Trump with a gleeful precision.

That kind of spotlight comes with a price—one that follows you home, tests your marriage, and seeps into your children’s memories. But talking to Jennifer Siebel Newsom, you get the sense she’s been training for this moment her whole life.

As a filmmaker in her early thirties, making her case to a room full of strangers, Newsom had heard it all: “This film has been done before.” “Who are you to make this film?”

She’s sitting across from me in an armchair, in a bright open space off the living room, describing what it took to make her first documentary, Miss Representation. At the time, Newsom was a Stanford-educated MBA who’d spent the past few years as an actress—a career she’d stumbled into at business school, of all places. She was one of few women in her class, and when a statistics professor kept cold-calling her, she’d freeze, then blush, then turn “bright red,” ashamed of the blushing. So she started slipping into the drama building next door at night for acting classes, “just as a way to face my fear.”

Eventually, she picked up small roles on shows like Mad Men and Numb3rs, with a longer run on the crime drama Life—but something kept nagging at her. Hollywood kept sending her out for the same parts: “the trophy wife, or the girlfriend, or the victim, or the kind of seductress.” She saw powerful women everywhere in the real world, and almost none of it reflected on screen.

That’s when the idea for Miss Representation, a film interrogating sexism in the media industry and its impact on women and girls, took shape. Newsom had already been putting her MBA to work on the side, fundraising and managing crews on indie productions while she acted. She started reaching out to documentary filmmakers to direct. “They thought it was such a great concept, but they all said nobody would hire them afterwards,” she says. “And I think that just lit a fire in me. I was like, Are you kidding? Okay, well then I have to do this myself.”

The subject matter had a way of following her off screen. “I went through all these trials and tribulations of fundraising, of asking for $2,500, $25,000, whatever you would,” she says, recalling the blunt put-downs that came with that process in 2008. Even after she managed to secure the funding, the scrutiny followed her into production. At one point, a man she hired for the project “tried to take over and laughed at me when I gave him feedback,” she says. “I literally almost couldn’t finish the film.”

But she kept going, powered by “this stubbornness and this knowingness.” When Miss Representation finally premiered at Sundance in 2011—and went on to earn major festival recognition and awards—a woman she’d interviewed for the film asked what the experience had taught her. “I discovered my voice,” she recalls telling her. “And I think the feminine voice is really important right now. I was sort of late to the game of realizing I had a voice.”

Her grit had deeper roots than most people realized at the time. In 2022, she took the stand in an L.A. courtroom to testify against Harvey Weinstein about an assault that took place 17 years earlier, when she was still working as an actress. Her case was already outside the statute of limitations, but prosecutors believed her account was credible and could help bolster other women’s, so she chose to take the stand anyway.

It wasn’t only the assault, she explains, but everything wrapped around the trial. “I couldn’t believe what the defense attorneys got away with. I couldn’t believe the way they treated me. I couldn’t believe what they called me in the courtroom,” she says, her voice steady but heavy. She describes what it revealed to her in plain terms: “the myriad of ways we silence women’s voices.” “In different forms, I’ve experienced various traumas in my life,” she says. “But I refused—refused to be suffocated by it.”

While she admits she’s not fully healed, not entirely at peace with any of it, she has kept that promise to herself. “I really believe things don’t happen to us, things happen for us,” she says, describing how those experiences deepened her empathy and compassion. Those instincts, she adds, have fueled her larger purpose: to “create policies and a culture that can hear women, that can believe women.”

And so, she’s continued to tell stories. Her second documentary, The Mask You Live In, examined how toxic masculinity warp boys before they become men, with ripple effects for the women around them. A third, The Great American Lie, traces how the U.S. economy sets families up to fail, hitting women—especially women of color—the hardest.

Newsom brought that same lens into policy as First Partner. She convened a working group on sexual assault after testifying against Weinstein, aimed at strengthening the system for survivors and stopping repeat perpetrators from skating by. Her nonprofit, The Representation Project, uses film, campaigns, and advocacy to push back against gender stereotypes in the media. And through California for All Women, a gender-equity initiative launched by Newsom, she has pushed for changes on issues like closing the pay gap and expanding paid family leave. All of this work circles back to the same premise: that women are “the backbones of their families, their communities, and the American economy.”

Newsom grew up in Marin County, one of five girls in a wealthy conservative family that valued propriety and composure, where “presentation matters.”

At times, those values felt empowering. “Because my dad didn’t have sons—and he was a college athlete and drafted to be an NBA player, but ultimately ended up veering into business instead—we were all athletes,” she says. “I grew up thinking I could do anything boys could do, and I could compete with them, whether it was tennis, soccer, or basketball, horseback riding, skiing, dancing—you name it. I felt like I could do it. I wasn’t afraid.”

But alongside that message was another one: that certain things weren’t meant to be talked about. “My parents were very private. Even talking to you right now, I’m like, Oooh, they’re not going to like that,” she says, laughing softly like she can already hear them. Then her smile fades. “After my sister died,” she adds, “very private.”

When Newsom talks about her sister, her voice drops into a whisper. Stacey Siebel was eight when she passed away, just days before Newsom turned seven, in a golf cart accident on a family trip to Hawaii. The loss pulled the family inward. “I think my mom and dad were in so much pain,” she says, her eyes filling, “and they couldn’t be there for me.”

And so she learned early on how quickly a life can tilt, how little control you sometimes have over the ones you love, and how to find anchors when the people you rely on most are breaking too.

Animals were one of those anchors. Newsom’s mother had experience with horses, and her father had a ranch in Montana. After Stacey died, her parents bought Newsom a white pony named Sugar, and a trainer named Marian Nelson taught her to jump hay bales and “to be fearless.” Nelson is still teaching, and years later, when one of Newsom’s daughters was struggling emotionally, she brought her out to ride too. “I was so excited. I was like: Oh, Marian is going to help my daughter be brave!” Newsom says.

Another lifeline was the women around her, who simply filled in where they could. “When we lost Stacey, I somehow was held by all these women,” Newsom says, listing off the women in her community who kept her close. “I think that’s what trauma does, and sexual assault does, and losing my sister did, is you feel very alone,” she says. “What gives me hope, though, is the sisterhood—all the angel women around me who are in this with me.”

On a call in mid-January, Governor Gavin Newsom can’t resist returning to the blind date where he met his wife. The date was set up by a friend, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, in the fall of 2006, and Jennifer arrived “an hour, two, three late.” He was freshly divorced from Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former California prosecutor turned Trump-world fixture, and the whole premise felt like a nonstarter.

“There’s a reason it’s a cliché—because it’s true and it’s so universal—but it was at a time when the last thing I was really thinking about was finding someone I would end up with, or even someone that I would date,” he tells me.

All that resistance vanished soon after she arrived. “It’s one of those curious things where it was just so comfortable and conversational,” he says. They started tracing their “concentric circles of friends,” realizing they’d run parallel for years without colliding. Then fate added one more practical joke at the end of the night: she walked back to the parking garage and found it closed. “So she was forced to spend—a very platonic night, for the record—with this stranger,” he says, “the mayor, at the time, of San Francisco.”

What struck him first was her kindness, a sense of genuine warmth and empathy. He now understands those qualities were shaped by her own “personal history,” and that they carried more weight than he realized on that first date. For the governor, that was “more precious for me, because those were more challenging times.” Beyond the divorce, his mom had recently passed away, and he was about to head into a reelection. “I mean, there was so much going on, so much transition in my own life, that Jen just fell into place—and was able to receive all of that with a grace that marked a real sense of comfort.”

Newsom, too, talks about that connection like she still can’t quite explain it. “We had so much in common, I felt like he was my best friend,” she says. “It was weird.” Beyond the obvious attraction, what stood out to her was how quickly they seemed to recognize each other, the feeling that they spoke the same emotional language, the kind you learn when you’ve been through it at a young age. She points to the instability he grew up with: a single mother working multiple jobs, dyslexia, bullying, a boy who learned early on how to take care of himself. “His heart. His soul. He’s a really, really kind, gentle human being.”

The couple got engaged in December 2007 and were married by the following July. The wedding was pointedly un-Washington, held on Newsom’s family ranch in Montana under open sky, with horses nearby. Before they met, she’d never been in a rush to have kids—she’d imagined adopting from around the world someday—but that soon changed, with the couple eventually welcoming four children: Montana, now 16; Hunter, 14; Brooklynn, 12; and Dutch, 9. Newsom had moved from L.A. to San Francisco, but kept fundraising, producing, and championing the causes she’d been exploring in her films.

Looking back on the move, the marriage, the kids, the speed of it all, Newsom frames it as a kind of leap of faith. At the time, she was still deep in Miss Representation, with no plans for a life in government. Both Hollywood and politics were “men’s worlds,” she’d come to learn. “In some ways, I was in one only to end up in another.”

Spend a morning with Newsom, and you realize warm memories are often woven with darker ones. She tells me about Sugar, a fluffy white chicken with the same name as her childhood pony. Then she’s pointing to the road at the edge of the property, where an armed man once lingered in a van. Standing at a wall of family photos, she mentions the time far-right provocateur Laura Loomer broke into the Governor’s Mansion grounds.

None of that is lost on her husband, who puts it bluntly: “Our politics have changed. Trump, 1.0, 2.0, makes people feel free to shove again. And California’s been on the receiving end of a lot of that. I certainly have, and she has. She’s had to absorb a lot of it. This hasn’t been a quiet six, seven years,” he says. The renewed focus on him, his family, and the state has only “raised the stakes and the scrutiny.”

In the past year, California’s standoff with the Trump administration has snowballed into a near-constant legal and political brawl: a first-in-the- nation lawsuit challenging Trump’s sweeping tariffs; litigation after Trump federalized California’s National Guard in L.A., and a multistate suit over efforts to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.

Although Governor Newsom tells me he has never doubted his wife’s “grit and resiliency,” there’s a muted sadness in the way he describes how his work follows her into the most ordinary parts of the day, from figuring out “novel ways” to leave the house because “we couldn’t go through the back, couldn’t go through the front,” to “people confronting her when she’s walking the dog—because of me, my policies.”

There’s also the issue of raising kids in this environment. “They don’t love the security around them, but sadly they need it,” he says. “They don’t like having other kids know that they’re the governor’s son or daughter, and that people are whispering behind their backs, or that they’re friends of theirs for the wrong reason or hate them for the wrong reason.” What haunted him most was not the kids, but the adults. “We infamously had to homeschool my oldest because it got totally out of hand. Some of the parents that met with the principal basically said, ‘I’m glad my kid’s going after your kid.’”

When I ask Newsom about the impact on her kids, she pauses to collect herself before she answers. “I think being the children of politicians is hard. They don’t choose this,” she says. “My kids are tough. They’re super sensitive, they’re super kind. They’ve been through more than they deserve to have been through.” She calls it a dance—being present without hovering, setting expectations without enabling. “I’m far from perfect. I make mistakes all the time,” she says. “But they know how loved they are.”

For Newsom, there are the personal stakes that the circus of politics brings, but also larger cultural ones. “I am disturbed by the fact that we have a president who is not only a predator and has gotten away with it, has not only bankrupted company after company and has gotten away with it, but now is the most corrupt president in our nation’s history,” she says. “What is this teaching our kids?”

It’s a question she returns to often. And it leads her, again and again, to the same conclusion: that today’s battles about media, gender, power, and technology are already materially shaping the lives of the next generation, and adults who view those as abstract policy issues are late to the conversation. It’s why her agenda stretches from child online safety and tech accountability—through the California Partners Project—to farm-to-school efforts, and other work that shapes the foundation of family life.

It’s a conviction Newsom carries so deeply that Lily Riesenfeld—a close friend of hers for more than a decade—tells me she’s had to physically stop her from giving her cell phone number to strangers on the street who mention a problem. Any problem. “Because she just wants to fix and solve everything. And we’re like, ‘Can you not do that?!’” Riesenfeld laughs. She describes Newsom as the kind of friend who shows up in sweatpants and clears your dishes before you notice, and the kind of mother who’s on top of four kids’ schedules, moods, and injuries.

That instinct is also how she’s pushed her husband. “On many occasions, she’s been very critical” of the way their operation defaulted to a policy-only posture, especially on social media, the governor told me. He admits that he used to fight it—until he saw what she was getting at: people understood their agenda faster when it was explained in real-life terms, with faces, consequences, and the family and partnership front and center.

That said, there’s never been daylight between them when it comes to the current administration. Newsom describes her husband as fair-minded to a fault—“it takes a lot for him to cut you off”—someone who will keep trying to find common ground until the ground drops out beneath you. With the president, it did. “Trump screwed us in California. Trump got super personal and lied and lied and lied and lied and lied,” she says, repeating the word lied eight times in one breath, like a tally she’s been waiting to deliver. “And so it was like, I’m with my husband—enough is enough. Knock it off.”

The night before our December interview, Newsom stood under the dome of the State Capitol rotunda alongside her husband and their children, ushering in the holiday season with speeches and lights. There they were: a glittering portrait of an American family, radiating an old-school glamour that drew the room toward them, constituents leaning in as if to take in the whole picture at once. It was hard not to see a preview.

The question hovering over the Newsoms now—inside Sacramento, inside Washington, inside every group chat where political obsessives play armchair strategist—is whether Gavin Newsom is heading for the White House in 2028. If he is, it will put Newsom’s model of the political spouse to the test.

Ask her husband to picture it, and he doesn’t hesitate. “Look, she doesn’t suffer fools,” he says. “She’s not a fly on the wall. She is not passive.” What makes her “formidable,” he adds, are her sharp instincts and a deeper grasp of the country’s challenges than most people in politics ever develop. That’s why, he says, “I think she’d be extraordinary in that role, even if she married someone else and they ran for that office. So forget me is all I’m saying.”

Ask the women in her life, and they light up like they’ve been waiting for someone to ask. Riesenfeld will have you know that “she’s not going to just be decorating the hallways with Christmas trees.” Michele Jawando, a philanthropy executive and seasoned Washington operator who’s worked with Newsom on policy initiatives, says, “What I tell people is politics is actually just people, and what I think Jennifer understands innately is people and how to be a storyteller and ways to bridge gaps across difference. I don’t know if she gets enough credit for that.”

Nancy Pelosi, who has seen every kind of political spouse, views the First Partner as a strategic mind. When I meet with her in her Washington office, the Speaker Emerita—a longtime friend of the Newsoms—points to how Newsom has used film to change how people absorb truths about power and representation. “I have to give her so much credit for that, because she understood that if this is your goal, there’s a creative path to go down to get it done. She’s made a very special contribution to this whole subject. And it’s a real challenge. So she’s the full package.”

For her part, Newsom is candid about the urgency of the moment. “It feels really early, but it also feels important to stand up to what’s happening in our country. And so obviously I’m supportive of that,” she says. She’s also clear-eyed about the influence that role could bring, calling it “an incredible platform” to push her agenda around women as power brokers in American life, at home and far beyond it. Still, she stresses that it’s “ultimately a family decision”—and speculative for now.

Weeks later, in the course of my reporting, I stumbled on an archival online listing for Newsom’s high school yearbook, offered in “very fine used condition.” It includes a scan of her senior page: a teenage Jennifer L. Siebel, smiling in snapshots, a pony in one frame. The seller’s description, seemingly posted before Newsom was even California’s First Partner, offers a small but strangely confident prophecy: “Mrs. Gavin Newsom may very well be our First Lady either in Sacramento or Washington.”

One down.

Prince Harry is sharing his own experience having served in Afghanistan with the British Army. The Duke of Sussex spoke out after Donald Trump downplayed the involvement of NATO allies in the war in Afghanistan following 9/11. Meanwhile, Meghan Markle shared several Instagram photos related to her husband's military service.

Trump previously suggested that the U.S. didn't necessarily need their NATO allies, telling Fox News on Jan. 22 (via CNN), "We've never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that. And they did—they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines."

In a statement shared with People via his spokesperson, Prince Harry said, "In 2001, NATO invoked Article 5 for the first—and only—time in history [following September 11]." He continued, "It meant that every allied nation was obliged to stand with the United States in Afghanistan, in pursuit of our shared security. Allies answered that call."

The Duke of Sussex further noted, "I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there...The United Kingdom alone had 457 service personnel killed."

Sharing just how devastating the war was for everyone involved, Harry said, "Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost." The prince continued, "Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace."

Following Prince Harry's statement, Duchess Meghan shared photos of her husband to her Instagram Stories. The Duchess of Sussex celebrated Harry's military achievements, including his work for the Invictus Games, which supports wounded, injured, and sick servicepeople from all over the world.

With new overseas visits, a reduced chemotherapy schedule for King Charles, and Princess Kate returning to more frequent royal duties, 2026 is shaping up to be a busy year for the Royal Family. Although The King shared that his cancer treatments have been heading in a positive direction, former royal butler Paul Burrell claims that the monarch will lean on Prince William and Princess Kate even more this year.

Speaking exclusively to OLBG, Burrell said the King recognizes that the Prince and Princess of Wales represent the future of the monarchy, and the couple will increasingly take on larger duties on the world stage.

"I think that the King is going to rely more and more on William and Kate because he knows that they are the future," Burrell says, adding, "He knows they are the most important and most powerful armor in his arsenal."

The King is scheduled to visit the United States in April to celebrate its 250th anniversary of independence from Great Britain. Burrell says that the monarch is "going to rely on [William and Kate] to pincer his visit to America. It'll be a two-pronged attack."

Although nothing has been set in stone for an official state visit, a source recently told the Sun that Prince William and family were planning to attend a FIFA 2026 World Cup match in the United States this summer.

"Wills is planning to come to the U.S. and we have been told to prepare for what a trip would entail," a source close to the World Cup said. “Interactions between security services and U.K./U.S. intelligence teams are in progress."

Burrell—who worked as a footman to Queen Elizabeth before serving as Princess Diana's butler up until her 1997 death—continued that the Prince and Princess of Wales have played a key part when it comes to relations between the United States and the United Kingdom.

"It's important for Britain. It's important for America that the Royal Family can prove their worth," Burrell says, adding that William and Kate "are specially placed to please an American president."

Dressed in a shimmering gold lace gown by Phillipa Lepley, Princess Kate took center stage at President Trump's state visit to the U.K. in September, even choosing to wear a dress in the president's favorite color.

"Kate played a blinder when the president came to visit here because she charmed him, and he'll never forget that," the former butler says of Trump. "We're dealing with a president who has a huge ego, so you're going to have to stroke that ego, and nobody does it better than the Royal Family."

From a glittering state banquet to an outing with the Scouts, Princess Kate took a leading role during Donald and Melania Trump's state visit to the U.K. on September 17 and 18. Wearing an ivory gown under a gold lace evening coat by Phillipa Lepley, the Princess of Wales sat next to President Trump during an elegant evening at the castle—and according to royal expert Ingrid Seward, Kate demonstrated that she'll be "a remarkable future Queen."

"She lightened the whole evening," the Majesty magazine editor-in-chief told People, adding, "There was a lot of pressure on her because all eyes were on her. She would be very aware that the most important person there was The King, but she can’t help that all eyes are on her."

The princess was seen laughing and sharing a toast with President Trump, and Seward said that Kate "obviously amused him." The royal biographer continued, "She is just a doyenne of perfect manners. He must have made her laugh."

"She is definitely showing traits of being a remarkable future Queen," Seward said of the Princess of Wales. "She has the most beautiful smile, which captivates everyone. It’s just magical."

The royal expert said Kate was "animated and happy and having a laugh" at the state banquet, adding, "She looked golden, and it’s definitely the best I’ve ever seen her look at a state banquet."

The Prince and Princess of Wales leaned into their future roles during the state visit, joining The King and Queen Camilla to welcome President and Mrs. Trump on September 17. Wearing a burgundy Emilia Wickstead coat dress and a matching Jane Taylor hat, Kate later swapped her headpiece for a hair bow before changing into her favorite tiara, the Queen Mary's Lover's Knot, for the state banquet.

"It was really uplifting," Seward said of the state visit. "It showed what [Britain] can really do when we push out the stops. Despite everything that’s going on in the world, we are still the best at putting on a show of pomp and circumstance."

The Royal Family hosted Donald and Melania Trump's state visit to the U.K., which included a decadent banquet at Windsor Castle on Sept. 17. However, according to reports, there was some drama behind the scenes between Donald Trump's security team and King Charles's royal employees.

The Daily Mail reported that sources shared that "several members of the Secret Service team guarding the president went into the kitchen to oversee the preparation by the royal chefs, and even tasting the food—which some of them felt was disruptive."

According to the outlet, "[T]he atmosphere in the kitchen quickly became tense as tempers began to fray between kitchen staff and visiting American security."

An anonymous source explained, "The banquet was a resounding success in the main hall, but there was a disruption behind the scenes." The source continued, "Tensions flared between the chefs preparing the meal and the U.S. security team responsible for protecting the president and his entourage."

Unsurprisingly, the royal chefs "grew frustrated," particularly as they were "working to plate three courses flawlessly."

The Daily Mail also reported that, according to Buckingham Palace, allegations of a disruption at the state banquet were "categorically untrue."

Despite the Royal Family's denials, sources reportedly told the publication, "What began as quiet irritation escalated into a heated exchange, with raised voices on both sides." A source continued, "It took several minutes for tempers to cool and for the kitchen to return to its usual rhythm."

While diners were allegedly oblivious to any arguments taking place in the kitchen, one source suggested the disruption was "impossible to miss."

Meanwhile, Princess Kate and Prince William took the lead during Donald and Melania Trump's state visit by being the first royals to greet the visitors upon their arrival at Windsor Castle.

As smoothly as the royal family's state visit with Donald and Melania Trump seems to have gone so far, it hasn't been entirely free of awkward moments.

On Friday, royal watchers were buzzing online about what seemed to be a snafu moment from Trump during his speech at the state banquet on Wednesday night.

According Us Weekly, video footage from the formal event, which was held at Windsor Castle, seemed to show the 79-year-old politician confusing two women in the royal family—Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton.

In a clip from his speech at the banquet, Trump can be seen looking at Kate as he says thank you to the "Queen"—whom he described as "very, very special," but whose actual name he didn't same in the speech. The mismatch—looking to Kate while verbally expressing gratitude to the "Queen"—made many viewers wonder if it was evidence of a case of momentary confusion on Trump's part.

During his speech, Trump also made a point to thank both King Charles and Queen Camilla for their “extraordinary graciousness" and to say that he was “deeply grateful” for having the honor of being the first U.S. president to make a second state visit to the U.K. (Trump made his first state visit to the country during his first term, in 2019).

King Charles also took the opportunity to deliver a speech at the banquet.

In his speech, Charles called Trump's historic second state visit a "unique and important occasion" that "reflects the enduring bond" and "special" relationship between the United States and United Kingdom.

“Mr. President, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence next year, it is remarkable to think just how far we have come," Charles said during his speech (per The Independent). "I cannot help but wonder what our forebears from 1776 would make of this friendship today."

The King went on to speak more about the shared history between the U.S. and U.K., to express his own admiration for America, and even to make a few good-humored jokes, maintaining the light-hearted tone that's defined much of the state visit.

“Today, however, we celebrate a relationship between our two countries that surely neither Washington nor King George III could possibly have imagined," the King continued. "The ocean may still divide us, but in so many other ways we are now the closest of kin. Mr President, you have spoken of your pride in your British roots. In fact, not only have you set foot on British soil twice in the last two months alone, but I understand that British soil makes for rather splendid golf courses!"

Earlier this week, when Donald and Melania Trump's helicopter, Marine One, landed on the grounds of Windsor Castle, they were personally greeted by two prominent members of the royal family—Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Writing for Vanity Fair, royal author and expert Katie Nicholl explained why it was the Prince and Princess of Wales who greeted the Trumps at the Walled Garden on the Windsor estate, as opposed to King Charles and Queen Camilla.

According to Nicholl, the decision to send Will and Kate to greet Donald and Melania Trump had nothing to do with the specifics of who was landing for a visit and everything to do with the fact that a state visit was happening at all.

"Prince William is required to meet visiting heads of state before they are officially introduced to King Charles and William, who last met with President Trump in December at the UK ambassador’s residence in Paris, offered a warm welcome," Nicholl wrote.

William's role in greeting visiting heads of state during state visits isn't new. His role as the first member of the royal family to greet visiting leaders was laid out explicitly in a June 2024 release from Buckingham Palace titled, "More details on the upcoming State Visit by The Emperor and Empress of Japan."

"His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales will greet the Emperor and Empress of Japan, at their hotel, on behalf of The King on Tuesday morning," the release stated, explaining clearly that William's role in these situations is to extend greetings on behalf of the monarch before the King and Queen formally welcome the guests.

After Will and Kate greeted the Trumps, the Prince and Princess of Wales escorted their guests across the grounds at Windsor Castle to officially meet with King Charles and Queen Camilla, but royal protocol didn't stop William from keeping things light while making official introductions.

William decided to break the ice with some humor, casually saying, "This is my dad," while introducing Trump to the King.

After introductions were finished, the Trumps joined the royal family in a carriage procession, followed by lunch together inside Windsor Castle.

According to a People report, Will and Kate also had a private meeting with the Trumps after the group lunch. The meeting was described as "warm and friendly," although no details about what the couples discussed during private sit-down have been released by the palace at this time.

Playing host to visiting heads of state is easily one the least relatable things the British royal family is expected to do. Leave it to Prince William, though, to find a way to make the high-stakes, high-pressure task of introducing a visiting U.S. president to the King seem somehow casually relatable.

As People reports, William and his wife, Kate Middleton, were tasked with officially welcoming Donald and Melania Trump when the landed on the grounds of Windsor Castle to begin their official state visit to the U.K. on Wednesday, Sept. 17. After greeting the Trumps, Will and Kate escorted the couple across the grounds to officially meet with King Charles and Queen Camilla—and this is when Will found an opportunity to break the ice and infuse some humor into the typically-formal moment.

While making introductions, Will decided to be playfully informal and undercut the intense formality of the moment, casually saying, "This is my dad," while introducing Trump to the King.

According to People, after the introductions were finished, Donald and Melania Trump joined the royal family in a carriage procession and then had lunch together inside Windsor Castle.

The outlet also reported that Will and Kate had a private meeting with the Trumps after the group lunch and that the meeting was described as "warm and friendly," even though no details about what the couples discussed during the meeting have been released by the palace at this time.

Later in the evening, at a state banquet held in honor of the Trumps' visit, King Charles spoke of the "special" relationship between the United States and United Kingdom.

“Anchored by the deep friendship between our people, this relationship which, with good reason, we and our predecessors have long called ‘special’, has made us safer and stronger through the generations," he said in his speech at the banquet.

"I cannot help but wonder what our forebears from 1776 would make of this friendship today," he continued, commenting jokingly on the well-documented tension between the first U.S. President, George Washington, and his own "five times great-grandfather," King George III, during the time of the American Revolution. "Today, however, we celebrate a relationship between our two countries that surely neither Washington nor King George III could possibly have imagined."

Kate Middleton might love a country casual look, but she never fails to bring the glitz and glamour to a state banquet. Princess Kate brought back her favorite tiara for the banquet honoring President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Wednesday, September 17—and she debuted an incredible new gown for the occasion.

The Princess of Wales swapped the burgundy coat dress she wore earlier in the day for a shimmering gold lace evening coat by British designer Phillipa Lepley worn over an ivory crepe gown. Lepley is famous for her bridalwear, and Kate wore a bespoke version of the designer's Darling Coat in hand-embroidered gold Chantilly lace. This marks the first time the princess has worn a coat to a state banquet, and only the second time she's ever worn the designer.

While the princess wore a veiled Jane Taylor fascinator to welcome the president and first lady earlier in the day, she later changed it out for a hair bow. For the state banquet, Kate wore her usual tiara, Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot. The diamond and pearl piece was also one of Princess Diana’s go-to tiaras, and Princess Kate has worn it to a number of state banquets since marrying Prince William.

"Originally commissioned by Queen Mary in 1913 and later one of Princess Diana’s favorites, it carries not just exquisite craftsmanship but also a powerful emotional resonance," Nilesh Rakholia, jeweller and founder of Abelini, tells Marie Claire. "Today it is the tiara most associated with Kate, blending continuity with a subtle tribute to her late mother-in-law.”

The Princess of Wales accessorized her outfit with an ivory Anya Hindmarch clutch featuring a pearl clasp and sparkling gold Aquazzurra pumps. In terms of jewelry, she paid tribute to the late Queen, wearing Queen Elizabeth's diamond frame earrings.

"Melania and I are delighted to visit with Prince William and to see Her Royal Highness, Princess Catherine. So radiant, so healthy and so beautiful," President Trump said during his speech at the banquet.

The U.S. state visit to the U.K. will continue on Thursday, September 18, with the Princess of Wales scheduled to carry out an outing with the Scouts alongside Mrs. Trump.

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King Charles is preparing to host Donald and Melania Trump when they embark on a state visit to the U.K. in September 2025. It's already been suggested that Princess Kate will be the "icing on the cake" of Donald's trip, but it's now been confirmed that two significant senior members of the Royal Family won't be available to host the American president.

Two Buckingham Palace press releases have revealed that Prince Edward and his wife, Duchess Sophie, will be out of the country when the Trumps arrive. Between September 14 and 17, the Duke of Edinburgh will travel to Papua New Guinea, where he will help to commemorate the country's 50th anniversary of independence from Australia. Prince Edward's excursion will include "a dawn flag-raising ceremony and a state dinner, to mark the occasion."

Between September 18 and 22, Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie will visit Japan, per a press release. "In Osaka and Tokyo, the duke and duchess will undertake engagements on themes which resonate in both countries, including youth opportunity, sustainability and innovation, educating the next generation, and women in leadership," Buckingham Palace explained.

During the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh's trip, they will also attend "Japan's largest international event," which is "the U.K. and Japanese Pavilions at EXPO 2025, Osaka, Kansai." According to GB News, Edward and Sophie's absence during the state visit could be viewed as a "setback."

Donald and Melania Trump will visit the U.K. between September 17 and 19. "Catherine will be the icing on the cake for a man as vain as Donald Trump," former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond previously told the Mirror. "To be seen with her will be gold dust in his eyes."

King Charles has met Donald Trump on a number of occasions over the years, and he's set to see the U.S. president once again during Trump's official state visit to the United Kingdom in September. President Trump previously traveled to the U.K. during his first term in 2019, and in July, Buckingham Palace announced his unprecedented second state visit will take place between Sept. 17 and 19. During the trip—which will include a state banquet—the Royal Family will also be reunited with first lady Melania Trump, who has become a pen pal of sorts with The King.

In her memoir Melania, the first lady detailed what it was like visiting London during Queen Elizabeth's reign and revealed that she and her husband kept in touch with King Charles. Describing the end of their June 2019 trip, she wrote: "As we bid farewell to Her Majesty, we extended a cordial invitation for her return visit to the United States. She expressed her gratitude with a warm smile. Sadly, Her Majesty wasn’t able to visit with us again before her death in 2022, but our friendship with the Royal Family continues, and we exchange letters with King Charles to this day.”

Per Hello!, the first lady has noted that she wrote to The King on another occasion, stating, "We kept in touch through letters, exchanging thoughts and ideas regularly." Apparently, the two share interests such as "architecture, gardens, and the arts."

In her memoir, Mrs. Trump also shared that she spoke to The King—then the Prince of Wales—about the environment during the "formal and elegant" banquet hosted in honor of the U.S. state visit. "Our paths had crossed many years ago in New York City,” Melania said of King Charles. "This time we engaged in an interesting conversation about his deep-rooted commitment to environmental conservation."

In addition to the state banquet, the first lady also wrote about the "warm" feelings she and the president shared toward the Royal Family. "Donald and I hosted an intimate dinner in honor of Prince Charles and the Duchess at the US ambassador’s residence—a perfect expression of the enduring ties between our nations," she wrote of their 2019 trip.

She added, "Despite the tumultuous backdrop of British politics at the time surrounding Brexit and changes at the Prime Minister’s office, the Queen and her family extended a warm welcome to us, treating us with the utmost hospitality."

Buckingham Palace announced on Monday, July 14 that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will be making a state visit to the U.K. from Sept. 17 through 19. The historic trip will mark the first time a United States president has made two state visits to the U.K., as President Trump also was hosted by Queen Elizabeth during his first term in 2019. While Prince William has been called the nation's "Trump card" when it comes to relations with the United States, there's another member of the Royal Family who could be just as important.

"Catherine will be the icing on the cake for a man as vain as Donald Trump," former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told the Mirror. "To be seen with her will be gold dust in his eyes."

The Princess of Wales attended her first state banquet since 2023 last week when French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte visited Windsor Castle. Although the princess—who announced she was in remission from cancer in January—has made it clear she's still working out what her "new normal" is, the royal took part in all aspects of this month's French state visit versus last fall, when she only attended the daytime event to welcome the Amir of Qatar.

Princess Kate was on hand for the 2019 state banquet held in honor of President Trump's visit, wearing a ruffled white Alexander McQueen dress and her go-to tiara, Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara.

When it comes to this September's trip, Bond said of the Princess of Wales, "I'm sure she will be there to massage his ego in the most diplomatic, subtle and regal way." The royal expert added that Princess Anne—who showed off a surprising new hairstyle at the French state banquet—and Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester, will no doubt be part of the state visit.

"I'm sure that Birgitte will be on hand again when President Trump comes to the UK," Bond said. "After so many years in the Royal Family, she is well versed in the niceties of a state visit. And the Princess Royal will also have a key role, as always. She really is The King's right hand woman; his confidante, his wingwoman."

The Princess of Wales thrilled royal fans when she wore Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara at the state banquet held to honor French president Emmanuel Macron last week, marking her first tiara appearance since 2023. But on Monday, July 14, Buckingham Palace announced that another lavish state banquet will be held in just two months when President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit the U.K.

While news of their unprecedented second state visit has been swirling over the past few months, the palace has now set an official date, with the couple heading across the pond from Sept. 17 through 19. Like Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, The King and Queen will host the president and first lady at Windsor Castle instead of Buckingham Palace.

On July 8, the Prince and Princess of Wales joined King Charles and Queen Camilla for a ceremonial welcome during the French state visit, and royal fans should expect the same when the U.S. president arrives in September. The King and Queen will also host a glittering state banquet in honor of their American guests—and that means tiaras.

For the French state visit, Princess Kate wore a custom red Sarah Burton for Givenchy gown and her go-to Lover's Knot tiara, which was also a favorite of the late Princess Diana. Kate has also worn two other tiaras over the years, including the historic Strathmore Rose Tiara and the Lotus Flower Tiara.

Interestingly, the Princess of Wales has never re-worn her wedding tiara, the Cartier Halo Tiara, unlike Diana, who often donned her wedding day headpiece, the Spencer Tiara.

The July 8 state banquet marked the first time Princess Kate—who was diagnosed with cancer in early 2024—had attended such an event since 2023. She missed the Japanese state visit in June 2024 amid her recovery and attended the welcome event for the Qatari state visit in November, but didn't join the Royal Family for the state banquet that evening.

In June, the Princess of Wales backed out of Royal Ascot at the last minute, noting she was "disappointed" but still trying "to find the right balance" between royal duties as she continued to recover from cancer.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands might be known for her bold, fashion-forward looks, but this week she's making headlines for quite a different reason. The Netherlands hosted its first NATO summit with all of the expected pomp and protocol, but Queen Maxima quickly went viral thanks to a brief but hilarious moment with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, June 25.

A video captured Trump chatting with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, thanking them for the hospitality at Huis ten Bosch Palace. Just as the president says "thank you," Maxima turns away and does a spot-on impression of Trump speaking.

An Instagram post sharing the clip was titled, "The more I watch Queen Maxima of the Netherlands mock Trump's mouth, the funnier it gets 🤣🤣," and social media users couldn't help but weigh in on the moment. "She did let her intrusive thoughts in, and I can appreciate her for it." one Instagram user wrote, while another added, "Am I watching a scene from the Office? 😂"

"I’m on Season 7 of this video" another Instagram user joked, while one added, "Gotta love a queen with a great sense of humor."

However, not everyone was loving the Dutch queen's playful mimicry. "How mature and royal of her," one commenter wrote, while another added, "The disrespect is disgusting."

Known for her charisma, warmth and sometimes outrageous sense of style, Argentinian-born Maxima has long been beloved for her down-to-earth personality—making her candid moment with Trump not entirely unsurprising.

Viral impersonations aside, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima welcomed leaders from 32 countries to The Hague, including everyone from French president Emmanuel Macron to Britain's prime minister, Keir Starmer.

King Charles is preparing to roll out the red carpet for President Donald Trump after inviting him for an unprecedented second state visit earlier this year—but according to a new report, there has been a major adjustment to the Royal Family's initial plans. According to the Times, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is pushing for the trip to happen sooner to expected, and in a much more formal capacity.

"Britain and the US are expected to confirm that a full state visit by the president will take place in September," the Times wrote. The formal document initiating a state visit, called a "manu regia," was reportedly delivered to the White House last week, per the outlet.

In his initial letter to Trump—which was hand-delivered by Starmer in February—The King suggested an informal visit at one of his residences in Scotland, followed by a grander state visit at a later date. However, the prime minister has now pivoted from that plan and per the Times, "has expedited a full 'bells and whistles' visit in an attempt to capitalize on the president’s fascination with the royal family."

Sources have reported that the Royal Family "hoped for a more ­leisurely and considered approach, building towards a full state visit." Instead, the trip is now expected to take place entirely in England, centering around Windsor Castle and including a glittering state banquet. While Princess Kate will almost definitely take part in Trump's visit, it's unclear if the Princess of Wales—who has scaled back her duties as she recovers from cancer—will be making a tiara appearance at the event.

Trump was quick to accept the royal invitation in February, stating, "The answer is yes, on behalf of our wonderful first lady, Melania, and myself, the answer is yes. We look forward to being there and honoring The King, honoring your country. Your country is a fantastic country, and it will be an honor to be there."

The trip will make Trump the only U.S. president to make two state visits to the U.K., a rare and historic distinction. He first met with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle in 2018, later returning for an official state visit in 2019.

Donald Trump and his family made plenty of headlines when they visited London in 2019 for an official visit with Queen Elizabeth, and in February, the U.S. president was invited back for an unprecedented second state visit by King Charles. Vice President JD Vance shared comments earlier this week about Trump's "love" for The King and the rest of the Royal Family—and now the president has given an indication on when the public might expect to see him travel to the U.K.

President Trump, speaking from the White House on Thursday, April 17, said that planning for the historic visit is well underway. "I think they are setting a date for September," he said, via the Mirror.

"I was invited by The King and the great country," Trump continued. "They are going to do a second fest—that's what it is. It is beautiful." The president—who met with Prince William during the reopening ceremony at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last fall—was full of praise for the Royal Family when sharing why he was invited back to the U.K.

"The reason is we have two separate terms, and it's an honor to be a friend of King Charles and the family, William," he said. The U.S. president had nothing but positive things to say about the "very handsome" Prince of Wales after their meeting in November.

"We had a great talk for half an hour, a little more than half an hour," Trump told the New York Post after their chat. "We had a great, great talk." The then-president elect shared that they discussed Princess Kate and King Charles's cancer battles, revealing, "I asked him about his wife and he said she’s doing well. I asked him about his father and his father is fighting very hard, and he loves his father and he loves his wife, so it was sad."

During an episode of the Sun's "Royal Exclusive" show at the time, royal correspondent Cameron Walker called the Royal Family Britain's "Trump cards" when it comes to relations with the United States. "We know that royal sources and his aides want to push William into this global statesman figure and we know the Labour government isn't going to get on much with President Trump and the Republican party in the U.S.," the royal reporter explained.

Speaking of his official state visit to the U.K. in 2019 and his upcoming trip, President Trump said, "I don't know how it can be bigger than the last one," adding, "The last one was incredible but they say the next one will be even more important."

Earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance hinted at the United States securing a "great" trade deal with the U.K. due to President Donald Trump's strong relationship with the Royal Family. Trump has been a longtime fan of the monarchy and has met with the late Queen, The King, Prince William and other royals on numerous occasions over the years. Melania Trump has even claimed that she exchanges letters with King Charles. But when it comes to Vance and Trump's recent remarks, a former royal butler says the palace is unlikely to "mind."

When discussing a trade deal with the U.K., Vance said (via the Guardian), "We’re certainly working very hard with Keir Starmer’s government. The president really loves the United Kingdom. He loved The Queen. He admires and loves The King. It is a very important relationship."

The vice president added that while Trump is "a businessman and has a number of important business relationships in" Britain, he also has "a real cultural affinity" for the United Kingdom. "I think there’s a good chance that, yes, we’ll come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries," Vance said.

Speaking on behalf of Spin Genie, The King's former butler Grant Harrold said that the remarks should come as a positive for Buckingham Palace.

"So Trump has often said he's got a great relationship with the Royal Family, and the royal’s PR team are not going to mind that at all," Harrold said. "They will not mind a president of the United States of America saying he's got a great relationship with the royal family, if anything it's perfect PR."

However, he added that "you would certainly never have The King turning round and saying 'oh yes me and Mr Trump are great friends.' He's just too diplomatic for that."

Instead, the monarch—who is "very careful with his words," per Harrold—would be "more likely to say, if he would say anything, something officially about the great relationship between the U.S. and the U.K."

The former butler explained that while Queen Elizabeth "had a great relationship with Ronald Reagan and the Obamas," she never spoke about it "explicitly" and let former prime minister Margaret Thatcher "talk about her great relationship with Reagan."

As for The King inviting the U.S. president to come to the U.K. for an unprecedented second state visit, Harrold said that any comments made by Trump or Vance would not "do anything" to impact the trip. The former butler added that "it would be a PR disaster" to "revoke that invitation."

The United States and United Kingdom have always enjoyed a "special relationship" over the years, and the Royal Family is a key component to that friendship (even if Queen Elizabeth allegedly didn't like Donald Trump). King Charles might be on the throne now, but it turns out there's another royal who's being called the U.K.'s "trump card" with the States.

Prince William recently met with Donald Trump in Paris during the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral, and on the latest episode of the Sun's "Royal Exclusive" show, GB News royal correspondent Cameron Walker shared how the Prince of Wales is being tapped as a key player in keeping a friendly relationship with the newly inaugurated U.S. president.

Walker shared that Prince William, in his role as Prince of Wales, meets with the prime minister "once a year," and his first visit with Keir Starmer happened "soon after the PM had a meeting, well a phone call, with the new President Trump." He called the timing of their conversation "telling" considering Trump famously admires the royals, and in particular, William.

"We know that royal sources and his aides want to push William into this global statesman figure and we know the Labour government isn't going to get on much with President Trump and the Republican party in the U.S.," the royal reporter added.

"So, is the Royal Family going to be the British government's trump cards, pardon the pun, to get the kind of trade tariffs off the table and create a better relationship than we currently have with the U.S.?" Walker asked.

Bronte Coy, who covers the royals for News.co.au, added that it "makes sense" for the Prince of Wales to "be pushed forward" since President Trump "has talked about how fond he is of Prince William."

During their meeting in Paris, Trump shared he "had a great, great talk" with the Prince of Wales and even discussed The King and Princess Kate's cancer battles.

"I asked him about his wife and he said she’s doing well," Trump said, adding, "I asked him about his father and his father is fighting very hard, and he loves his father and he loves his wife, so it was sad."

Coy pointed out that Trump—who has long been a fan of the Royal Family—"does respond well with people he has that relationship with, where he admires them, respects them, as he did with the late queen and does with King Charles."

The Sun's royal editor, Matt Wilkinson, said "William does have to step up" when it comes to international relations, adding that The King had decades to learn his role, while Prince William will have a shorter period to prepare for the throne.

When Prince William met Donald Trump after the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame cathedral on Dec. 6, the U.S. president elect said the two had a "great" talk, but a topic that likely didn't come up was the royal's late mother, Princess Diana.

In the '90s, Trump reportedly had a bit of a crush on the People's Princess, as recalled in an article written by her friend Selina Scott—a story that has been making the rounds again after William's meeting with the president elect.

"He bombarded Diana at Kensington Palace with massive bouquets of flowers, each worth hundreds of pounds," Scott wrote in a 2015 Sunday Times story (via People) adding, "Trump clearly saw Diana as the ultimate trophy wife."

"As the roses and orchids piled up at her apartment she became increasingly concerned about what she should do," Scott wrote. "It had begun to feel as if Trump was stalking her."

When Diana asked for advice on the situation—"He gives me the creeps," she told Scott—the broadcaster told her to "just throw them in the bin."

"Diana laughed," Scott added. However, once the story built up steam, Trump denied having a thing for Princess Diana, telling Piers Morgan (via Newsweek) that Scott's claims were "totally false."

"I liked her," Trump said. "I met her in New York once standing in line and we were all shaking hands and that was the only time I ever met her. I read that story that I was calling her or something and it was so false."

He added that he had "no interest from that standpoint. But I did meet her once and I thought she was lovely."

An interview with Howard Stern years before seems to suggest otherwise. When the radio host—per the Daily Beast—asked Trump in 1997 if he "could've nailed" Princess Diana, the business tycoon replied, "I think I could have."

In 2000, Trump appeared on the Howard Stern Show again, and when the controversial radio personality asked, "Would you have slept with her?" (referring to Diana), Trump replied, "Without even hesitation."

So what did Trump and the Prince of Wales discuss?

According to the New York Post, Trump said he spoke to the Prince of Wales for "a little more than half an hour" about a variety of topics, including King Charles and Princess Kate.

"I asked him about his wife and he said she’s doing well," Trump said. "I asked him about his father and his father is fighting very hard, and he loves his father and he loves his wife, so it was sad." The president elect also shared that he thought Prince William looked "better in person," calling him "handsome." Like mother, like son?

While Donald Trump still has another month before he heads back to the White House, the president elect met with several world leaders while visiting Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral—and now he's sharing the details of his private conversation with a "very handsome" Prince William.

Trump told the New York Post that he had a "great" chat with the Prince of Wales, who attended the rededication service as a representative of the United Kingdom. Apparently, they even discussed Princess Kate and King Charles's health during their lengthy meeting.

"I asked him about his wife and he said she’s doing well," Trump said, adding, "I asked him about his father and his father is fighting very hard, and he loves his father and he loves his wife, so it was sad."

Both the Princess of Wales, 42, and King Charles, 76, were diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the year, with Princess Kate announcing in September that she'd finished chemotherapy treatments.

"We had a great talk for half an hour, a little more than half an hour," Trump continued. "We had a great, great talk.”

On the topic of greatness, Trump even gushed over Prince William's looks, adding, "He’s a good-looking guy. He looked really, very handsome last night."

However, the praise came with a bit of a backhanded compliment. "Some people look better in person?" the president elect said before adding, "He looked great. He looked really nice, and I told him that.”

Perhaps it was the Prince of Wales's fan-favorite beard that did the trick?

Looks aside, the duo met at the residence of the British ambassador in Paris, with Trump saying, “Great man this one. He’s going to do a fantastic job.”

It's been a busy time for Prince William, who took part in the Qatari state visit at Buckingham Palace last week followed by Princess Kate's annual Christmas carol concert on Friday before flying to Paris. He also served Christmas dinner to the homeless at one of his favorite charities, The Passage, in London, doing—to use one of Trump's favorite terms—a "great" job at spreading Christmas cheer.

Queen Elizabeth hosted Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump on two separate occasions—once in 2018, and again in 2019. Since the former Queen's death in September 2022, multiple sources have suggested that the monarch wasn't exactly enamored with Trump. Now, it's being reported that the former president allegedly offended Queen Elizabeth with an insensitive comment about her late sister, Princess Margaret.

According to the Daily Mail, an insider familiar with Trump's 2018 visit to the U.K. told royal expert Richard Eden, "Trump put his foot in it by saying Margaret must have been a difficult sister. The Queen was very annoyed with this remark, which she viewed as ignorant and hurtful. She always defended Margaret to the hilt."

Earlier this year, a documentary claimed that the late Queen "didn't like" Trump.

Meanwhile, an excerpt from Craig Brown's book, A Voyage Around The Queen, revealed that the monarch wondered if Trump found her boring. "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," Brown wrote in a book excerpt published in the Daily Mail.

However, Jack Stooks, a former gardener for King Charles, was irked by stories regarding the late Queen's opinions of Trump. In an interview with GB News, Stooks said, "I think that this completely does [disrespect her memory]. There doesn't seem any points or reasons for this to have come about."

He continued, "To suddenly start claiming that about somebody who has passed without allowing them to defend themselves and say, ‘well, actually, hang on a minute, that wasn't quite what was said.'"

Stooks also suggested that Queen Elizabeth wasn't the kind of person who would speak negatively about others. "We know what The Queen was like as a person," he told the outlet. "We know that in her reign, she never put a foot wrong. So why would she suddenly get to a point in her life where she suddenly goes, ‘oh, let's put my foot wrong?"

Ever since President Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 election, the internet has been a little less concerned with contrast makeup theory and a little more fixated on recession indicators in fashion. Specifically, the universal tariffs on imported goods Trump touted as a major agenda for a second term in office; signed into policy on March 3; amplified into sweeping taxes on China, the European Union, and more, announced on April 2; and finally put on a 90-day pause (with some exceptions) on April 9.

Trump's proposed tariffs on the campaign trail—between 10 and 20 percent for all imports and up to 60 percent for goods from China—first bubbled up without much fanfare. But in the final days before the election and the immediate aftermath, alarm bells started ringing all across the internet, from panicked fashion obsessives and corner office CEOS to everyday, average citizens. By the time the April 2 "Liberation Day" tariffs arrived, economic experts warned CNBC they would have "horrendous" effects on global trade—trickling all the way down to everyday shopping. Sure enough, the stock market immediately suffered. And businesses—especially small, women-led companies—worried they would pay the policy's true cost.

Some people misinterpret tariffs as a tax other countries pay, but they're actually billed to the companies pushing the products. And U.S. consumers buy a lot of products from abroad. So, to foot the potential tariff bill, brands are expected to raise the prices we all pay at the online checkout or IRL cash register. The situation has all the makings for a retail reckoning: on where our clothes are made and what we choose to buy. As one viral tweet by the costume designer Emma Scott went, "Genuinely curious what's going to happen when a society that buys everything from Amazon, Walmart, and Temu realizes what a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods looks like." Turns out, the latest tariff on Chinese goods is up to 125 percent.

There's a lot more at stake than sticker shock. As fashion journalist Amy Odell wrote in her newsletter, Back Row, "The price hikes would create a cascade of consequences for consumers who buy clothes, which in turn could adversely affect the fashion industry in many ways."

Before the incoming Trump administration finalized a tariff plan, lobbyists and brands were searching for loopholes, and experts were painting a picture of what 2025 tariffs could mean for all our closets. Then, President Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday, Nov. 25, that 25 percent tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada would be implemented his first day in office. He also promised a tariff of at least 10 percent on goods from China—with the potential to raise it higher.

It took a few more weeks after the inauguration, but on Mar. 3, 2025, President Trump first announced 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, and doubled the tariff on imports from China to 20 percent. (At least two nations, Canada and China, have retaliated with tariffs of their own, per NPR.) By April, tariffs on China increased to 34 percent, tariffs on the European Union reached 20 percent, and countries where much of the fashion industry bases its production skyrocketed as high as 49 percent. Global markets trended downward in response, and Trump reversed course by April 9: The President announced only a blanket 10 percent tariff would remain in effect for most nations, for a 90-day grace period while final rates were negotiated. Meanwhile, China would be stuck with the aforementioned 125 percent tax.

The President's Oval Office tax announcement might seem far away from the runways of Fashion Month. But it's bound to have an impact on the collections produced later this year—and goods that are already on shelves. Instead of bringing your Economics 101 textbook out of storage, read on for a breakdown of exactly what tariffs during the second Trump presidency are going to entail and how they'll affect your shopping habits.

What are tariffs, again?

This is the first question on everyone's mind. Searches for "tariff" and "Trump's tariff plan" spiked a combined 6,150 percent in the days following the U.S. election, while searches for "who pays tariffs" are up 350 percent.

By the most basic definition, tariffs are government-imposed taxes on imported or exported goods paid by the company moving the products around. Import tariffs on clothing, appliances, technology, and other retail categories are the most common in the United States. They're often implemented to encourage domestic manufacturing and job growth. In fashion, that would mean more products with "Made in the USA" tags.

But few products, whether we're talking trendy sneakers or tote bags, are made from materials sourced, assembled, and shipped from a single location. Meaning, import tariffs don't always produce the intended results. Companies often cut internal costs or raise the prices you see at the mall (or online) to pay tariffs immediately to avoid the even higher costs of re-configuring their entire business. Those fees don't just include materials to make goods: They also involve re-training workforces to produce those items and building infrastructure to crank them all out. Simply put, import tariffs are much more expensive than a one-time tax.

What is Trump's tariff plan?

The Trump Administration's approach to tariffs has escalated from the campaign trail to the present day, where even uninhabited islands near Antarctica were hit with taxes.

President Trump made several tariff promises on the race back to the White House. First, that all goods imported to the United States would be subject to a 10–20 percent tariff. Second, that a 60 percent tariff would be applied to all imports from China. And third, all goods imported from Mexico would be hit with a 25 percent (or greater) tariff. He positioned the policy as a way to raise money for the federal government, as well as a tactic for retaliating against other nations. "Other countries are going to, finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world," President Trump said onstage during the September debate against Kamala Harris.

Exactly when and how potential tariffs will be implemented weren't immediately announced. “The vision is there, but the game plan is not,” a source involved in the incoming Trump administration's economic policies told CNN.

By Nov. 25, there were more than concepts of a tariff plan. Trump posted on his social media app, Truth Social, that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, plus at least a 10 percent tariff on imports from China, on his first day in office. The president-elect framed the decision as retribution for streams of illegal drugs reportedly moving into the United States. Trump also added that tariffs on Chinese imports could increase. A representative for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., responded that "No one will win a trade war or a tariff war."

President Trump didn't quite keep his promise. The tariffs came into effect on Mar. 3, 2025, 43 days into his second term. Taking effect just after midnight, they included the aforementioned 25 percent tax on imports from Canada and Mexico, plus an increase to a 205 percent tax on imports from China.

In remarks at the White House, Trump called the tariffs a "very powerful weapon that politicians haven’t used because they were either dishonest, stupid or paid off in some other form." The US stock market plummeted in response, per the BBC, and world leaders were quick to condemn the policy. Canadian President Justin Trudeau said taxing close neighbors and allies was a "very dumb thing to do."

But the tariff plans still weren't over. At the White House on April 2, President Trump revealed "Liberation Day" tariffs, a sweeping plan that set 10 tariffs as a "baseline" across more than 180 nations that trade with the United States, per CNBC. Some of the highest tariffs were placed on major players in the fashion industry, including the European Union (subject to a 20 percent tariff) and China (receiving a 34 percent tariff).

Governments around the world quickly responded to the plan, calling it "not the act of a friend" (per Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese) and worth fighting "with force" (per Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney). Economic experts also saw the plan as the start of a global trade war. Stock markets tumbled on April 3, with the DOW Jones falling 2.9 percent, or 1,200 points, at the opening bell. Stocks for retail-oriented brands including Walmart, Nike, and Lululemon led the global declines, per Reuters.

Panic set in across the retail industry following the "Liberation Day" tariffs' unveiling. In interviews with Marie Claire, several small businesses noted that tariffs would almost certainly result in higher costs being passed on to customers. The stock market tumbled as bigger businesses' leaders expressed their concerns—and JP Morgan went so far as to predict a 2025 recession. By April 9, President Trump appeared to roll back his plan (and attempt to assuage worried businesses): He announced a 90-day pause on major tariffs, leaving a baseline 10 percent tax in place. China was the only exception—still subject to a tariff of more than 100 percent.

Okay, so how do those tariffs affect my shopping habits?

There are a lot of exciting 2025 trends to look forward to this year, but the barrier to participating in them will get even higher as tariffs go into effect. So will shopping for basic necessities across clothing, furniture, appliances, and more.

Business of Fashion released a sweeping report on the effects of the Trump Administration's "Liberation Day" tariffs shortly after their debut on April 2. Nations where leading fashion brands source most of their raw materials and produce their goods—including Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh—were initially targeted with some of the highest tariffs. (Cambodia's are a whopping 49 percent.) China, one of the biggest exporters of fashion goods, was hit with 34 percent—which then increased to 125.

Luxury brands who rely on tiny workshops in Ubrique, Spain, or the hills of Italy aren't faring much better. Business of Fashion reports designer empires like the luxury groups Kering and LVMH will see their net income decline by between 8 and 14 percent without mitigating the tariffs.

The hurt won't all be absorbed by big business. A study by the National Retail Federation found that proposed tariffs could decrease Americans' spending power by up to $78 billion each year. The study suggested that costs retailers need to absorb will be too high for them to pay alone, so prices we all see at the store will rise.

"Since tariffs are essentially a tax collected once merchandise crosses another country's borders, retailers that import any merchandise from China will be impacted more severely," says Shawn Grain Carter, associate professor of business management at FIT.

"Made in China" covers almost every corner of your closet, from cotton dresses and T-shirts to running shoes and even designer bags. "Since China was accepted into the WTO [World Trade Organization] in 2001, they became the dominant player in fashion manufacturing across most fashion categories in the majority of price points," Professor Grain Carter explains. "According to 'Good On You,' 65 percent of fashion in the world is produced in China."

Prepare for even middle-class fashion and affordable brands to feel more out-of-reach. Professor Grain Carter notes that fast fashion is an extremely price-sensitive category, and "consequently, Zara, H&M, and others will have to determine the best ways to absorb these tariffs."

Of course, fashion can make internal cost cuts to avoid price hikes. However, something else might be sacrificed to save, such as the quality of the fabric, the sheen of the finishes, or even the packaging arriving on your doorstep.

In the long term, prices could stabilize as retailers consider rebuilding their supply chains. "Obviously, sourcing goods in other countries could be less expensive as a result," Professor Carter says. "This would also make manufacturing more competitive among multiple players, which in turn could stabilize retail prices for consumers."

Are Trump's tariffs only going to affect new merchandise?

Not even a used Birkin bag or previously loved Goyard tote is safe from the impacts of tariffs. The U.S. pre-owned luxury market also stands to shift from policies targeting brand-new merchandise—starting with more price increases.

"Prices in the secondary market rise and fall in line with prices in the primary market," says Sarah Davis, founder and president of Fashionphile. "So when brands who import to the U.S. then face tariffs on those goods, they often hike the retail price in line, which means resale prices will also increase. Retail and resale prices are indirectly hitched to each other."

Some luxury resellers acquire their collection of used Lady Diors and Louis Vuitton Neverfulls wholesale from Asia's secondary market, Davis notes. If vintage gems are sourced overseas, they'll be suseptible to even higher prices. "Tariffs on the import of these goods would mean higher acquisition expenses for U.S. resellers, who would be forced to pass that increase along to the customer if they want to maintain their margins," she explains.

If you want a bag in 2025 with a price closer to 2024 rates, consider companies that source directly from their customers or peer-to-peer platforms. These might be exempt from the same headwinds facing the rest of the market. "The fact that the luxury brands may have to significantly raise prices in their own stores and department stores, could funnel even more consumer interest in more affordable channels, like resale," Davis says. "The consumer has already been vocal in their frustration in the increasing prices that we've seen in the luxury sector in the last couple years. Even higher prices and limited availability could lead to a breaking point for some consumers who would seek refuge in softer pricing alternatives in resale."

So...should I stop shopping now that Trump's tariffs are in effect?

Whether your wish list is filled with the best designer tote bags and luxury gifts or just the nicest T-shirts Amazon has to offer, the time to hit "Order" was last year. There's still uncertainty as to how long the tariffs will last—though decreeing "tariff" the "most beautiful word in the dictionary" sure makes it sound likely. Still, expert insights and statements from Donald Trump's camp indicate he's not backing down. That means the year will likely bring higher prices or lower product quality (or both).

Editor's note: This post was updated on November 26, 2024, with information about Donald Trump's new tariff plans. It was updated a second time on March 3, 2025, with the tariffs that were placed into effect. It was updated a third time on April 3, 2025, with details on expanded tariff plans from the Trump administration. It was updated again on April 9, 2025, with details on Trump's 90-day tariff pause.

Shortly after Republican candidate for president Donald Trump handedly won the 2024 election, securing a series of pivotal swing states in a race that saw a large swath of the electorate shift radically to the right, he named his future chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” now President-elect Trump told supporters at a victory party at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, shortly after he declared victory on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Trump will be the first president to secure the White House after having been convicted of felony crimes and found liable for sexual assault.

President-elect Trump wasted no time announcing Wiles, 66, as his future chief of staff, calling her "tough, smart, innovative" and someone who is "universally admired and respected" in a statement obtained by CNN.

As the country prepares for a second Trump presidency, here is what people should know about the 47th president's chief of staff.

She's a seasoned political consultant.

According to CNN, Wiles has spent years working in Washington, D.C. as a lobbyist, and as of Thursday is listed as the co-chair of the Florida and Washington, DC, offices of Mercury, a national lobbying firm.

In 2024, Mercury has a total of 66 clients, according to OpenSecrets, bringing in a total amount of $8,925,000 from those firms to lobby policy and lawmakers on their behalf.

Per CNN, it is currently unknown if the 66-year-old will "step away from her position at Mercury" after neither President-elect Trump's transition team or his future chief of staff responded to a request for comment.

Wiles got her start in politics in 1995, when she helped John Delaney become the first Republican mayor of Jacksonville since the Reconstruction era, USA Today reports. Wiles went on to work for New York Rep. Jack Kemp and the former President Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign and administration.

She has a famous father.

Wiles is the daughter of the iconic football broadcaster, Pat Summerall. For the uninitiated, Summerall worked for both CBS and FOX calling NFL games for an astounding 41 years before announcing his retirement following the 2002 season.

For 21 seasons, Summerall called games alongside football legend John Madden—the pair became network television's most prominent broadcasting duo.

In 2013, Summerall passed away at the age of 82 of cardiac arrest.

"Think about this: Her dad sat between John Madden and Howard Cosell, two of the biggest personalities, pains in the a**, right?" a Trump campaign official previously told USA TODAY. "Really hard thing, and he was the calming center. And it’s genetic. She has that."

She was Trump's acting campaign manager.

“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” Trump said in the statement announcing her appointment to White House chief of staff.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected," the statement continued. "Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”

Unlike many of the people in Trump's political orbit, Wiles worked behind-the-scenes on the campaign.

“Susie likes to stay sort of in the back,” Trump said Wednesday after he asked Wiles to address the crowd at his victory party. Wiles publicly declined Trump's invitation, and instead passed the mic to co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita.

"She hates the limelight," Delaney said earlier this year to USA TODAY.

She will make history as the first woman to be named White House chief of staff.

Once Trump takes office, Wiles will become the first woman to hold the position in U.S. history.

“She is brilliant, tough, strategic,” Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, posted Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, after President-elect Trump made his chief of staff announcement.

“She will serve the country well.”

Madonna is eating her feelings—literally.

The star took to Instagram Stories on Nov. 7 to show off a beautiful cake she ate the previous day, decorated with glacé cherries as well as multicolored piping that made it look a bit like a sunflower. But it was the cake's inscription the singer was drawing our attention to: The creation read "F*** TRUMP" in big, bold, iced letters—in brown, for extra visual effect.

Madonna captioned the photo, "Stuffed my face with this cake last night," adding, "Thanks to @pia_pressure_"

Pia Hambour is Madonna's chef and the creator of this cake, and she shared a clearer view of the cake on her own professional Instagram page as well.

In a second Story, Madonna shared a selfie with the words, "trying to get my head around why a convicted felon, rapist, Bigot was chosen to lead our country because he's good for the economy?"

Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by a long list of people, and was convicted as part of a "hush money" trial, per CBS News, making him the first-ever convicted felon to become President of the United States.

Madonna had endorsed Trump's Democratic opponent VP Kamala Harris days before the election, writing on Instagram, "Paris was so FUN! It was hard to leave, but I had. to come home.toV.O.T.E. @kamalaharris For. President!!!!"

She was one of an overwhelming majority of A-listers to endorse Harris, including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, John Legend, Aubrey Plaza, Stevie Nicks, Barack and Michelle Obama, Mindy Kaling, Cardi B, Katie Holmes, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Jessica Parker, Selena Gomez, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, and so many more.

Donald Trump, as for him, had the support of public figures including Elon Musk, Hulk Hogan, and Caitlyn Jenner.

Kamala Harris's stepdaughter Ella Emhoff has responded to Donald Trump winning the presidential election over her stepmom.

Ella took to Instagram Stories on Nov. 7, sharing a Getty photo of herself looking upset with the caption, "Truly no words. We are gonna get through this. It just f***ing hurts like a b*tch right now and that's ok. The fight doesn't stop now. Just please check in on your people right now."

The artist added, "This is the time to organize, mobilize and make a difference in your communities big or small."

She concluded, "I'm here for all of you and I love you guys."

Ella, 25, and her brother Cole Emhoff, 29, are the children of second gentleman Doug Emhoff. He and Kamala Harris got married in 2014, and VP Harris has spoken many times about her close bond with her stepchildren.

In a 2019 essay for ELLE, republished in July 2024, the Vice-President opened up about being "Momala" to Cole and Ella, and about balancing her responsibilities towards her family, and those towards the country.

"Fortunately for me, both Ella and Cole do get it," she wrote. "They are my endless source of love and pure joy. I am so thankful to Doug, to Kerstin [Cole and Ella's mom], and most of all, to Ella and Cole. And as our family embarks together on this new journey—one that has taken me to South Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Nevada, and Michigan in the last few weeks alone—I can say one thing with certainty, my heart wouldn’t be whole, nor my life full, without them."

Harris conceded the presidential race to Trump earlier this week, with many celebrities expressing deep upset over the result, including Olivia Rodrigo, Lili Reinhart, and Jimmy Kimmel.

Olivia Rodrigo was NOT pleased when she saw her song being used to celebrate Donald Trump's victory.

Earlier this week as results were rolling in and Trump was poised to win the presidency, the Team Trump TikTok account posted a celebratory video, which included the caption, "And suddenly the words 'I'm the President-Elect' came out of my mouth..."

The video was set to the sound of "deja vu" by Rodrigo, pointing to the fact that this is Trump's second victorious presidential election. But the unimpressed singer commented, "ew don't use my sound ever again ty"

Her comment appears to have since been deleted, but along with it, she took the sound: The song has been removed from the video, too, presumably at Rodrigo's request since she owns at least part of the copyright.

TikTok commenters found the whole thing hilarious, with one person commenting, "olivia removing the deja vu sound from tiktok is iconic"

"Oh Olivia, the Icon you are," said someone else, with a third person adding, "OLIVIA ATE"

Rodrigo endorsed Kamala Harris via Instagram Stories in July, by reposting a clip from one of the Democratic candidate's rallies, in which she said (via Billboard), "And we who believe in reproductive freedom will stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body, and not have their government tell them what to do!"

Rodrigo is a longtime reproductive rights activist, and even founded the Fund 4 Good to help secure women and girls' rights to education, reproductive rights, and safety from gender-based violence.

In 2021, Rodrigo met with VP Harris to discuss vaccines, so it's no surprise that she wouldn't be happy about the Trump campaign's use of her music. She joins the legend Céline Dion in that sentiment, so she's in good company.

Jimmy Kimmel has made his feelings about Donald Trump winning the presidential election very clear on his late-night show.

But as a comedian, Kimmel managed to make light of his upset on Wednesday's Jimmy Kimmel Live.

In particular, he made a joke that landed pretty well with the audience: "My only request to President-elect Trump is that he let me share a prison cell with Taylor Swift," Kimmel said. "I’m really good at making bracelets and I think we’d get along just fine."

He added darkly, "We'll see how funny that is in six months when the great talk show host roundup begins."

Elsewhere in his opening monologue, the host decried the fact that Americans chose the "criminal" (Donald Trump) over the "prosecutor" (Kamala Harris) in the election. He also joked about Trump claiming the election was rigged prior to the results coming in, and about wanting to leave the U.S.

"This Donald Trump, he's like the emperor from Star Wars," Kimmel quipped. "He's old, he's evil, and he keeps coming back with no reasonable explanation whatsoever."

On a more serious note, the TV presenter said, "It was a terrible night last night. It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go."

At this point, Kimmel got emotional before adding, "for healthcare, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on social security, for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO, for the truth, and democracy, and decency, and it was a terrible night for everyone who voted against him. And guess what? It was a bad night for everyone who voted for him, too, you just don't realize it yet."

Many other high-profile celebrities have expressed their sadness and anger at Trump's victory, including Billie Eilish, Lili Reinhart, Cardi B, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Christina Applegate.

On Tuesday, November 5, people went to the polls to vote for the next president of the United States. On the ballot: former president Donald Trump and vice president Kamala Harris. The stakes were high, with the New York Times reporting that "the polls show one of the closest presidential elections in the history of American politics."

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Donald Trump was declared the winner. But leading up to that moment, Marie Claire spoke with voters from every state, as well as Washington, D.C.—a news anchor stationed at Trump headquarters in Florida, a writer throwing an election watch party in Montana, a middle school teacher in Minnesota, a poll watcher in Pennsylvania, and so many others—to report on what they were experiencing on the historic day. Here is what they told us.

Alabama

"I feel like I hope my vote matters, and I’d love to see Alabama adopt early voting."

Millie McCarrell, nurse

Alaska

"I got up early and headed to my local polling place as soon as it opened. I've been voting at the same neighborhood church for ten years and there has never been a line before. Today the line was outside the building before the doors opened. Despite the volunteers being a bit overwhelmed, the mood was optimistic and positive."

Erin McCarthy, attorney

Arizona

"I joyfully cast my ballot for Kamala Harris. I know she will be the type of leader that my children can look up to, and I believe she’s the most qualified to protect the freedoms of everyone in our country. I hope I’m part of history in electing the first female president of the United States!"

Lauren Brimley, small business owner

Arkansas

"I just returned from the election party I attended to support the candidate I canvassed for—Kate Schaffer, the Democratic candidate running for Arkansas State House District 10. The votes are extremely close, and I'm hopeful we will finally see some change. Although it can be difficult to envision significant changes in Arkansas, I truly believe that transformation is possible if we start gradually flipping districts. I’m also glad I had the opportunity to participate in this, even though I couldn't vote in this election. But you can bet I'll be voting the day early voting starts for the next elections."

Nivriti Deshpande, high school senior

California

“Today feels monumental and scary. As a Black woman you always hear you’ll work twice as hard to get half as far. And today could finally prove that adage wrong. It also feels like for the last few months I’ve gotten to hear what the country really thinks of 'us' and will continue to hear it regardless of the outcome. I’m cautiously optimistic, and galvanized no matter what.”

MacKenzie Green, vice president of social for a media company

Colorado

“It’s 7:41 p.m., and the numbers are looking great. We are so happy that our community is with us, and we are ecstatic that we will be able to announce to our community that the reproductive healthcare we require is now a right in Colorado’s state constitution. This moment is surreal and none of this would have been possible without the commitment, collaboration, and resilience of our community. The fight for abortion access never ends, and COLOR Action Fund is endlessly committed to the wellbeing of our community.”

Dusti Gurule, president and CEO of COLOR Action Fund

Connecticut

"I voted for Kamala Harris for my students, for myself, for the people in my life that I love and respect (and for those I don’t know!), so that we can all have access to reproductive freedom, climate justice, and the right to disagree without fear. I am a born and raised New Englander who grew up in Massachusetts, voted in Connecticut for the first time today, and voted in person for the first time since 2012. As an educator who is currently teaching a college class on disability justice, I stood by the water in my favorite state park this afternoon and felt proud of my vote. Go Kamala!"

Zoë Burgard, Yale PhD student and educator

Delaware

"It's late in the evening. I'm at home on my couch watching as the results start to roll in. It feels like Donald Trump is going to win. I'm texting friends and family as it all feels unbelievable. I wasn't expecting the news so soon and while the election feels like it's been going on forever, I'm not ready for the finality of the results."

Lynn Frazier, retail worker

Florida

“Tonight, I’m here in West Palm Beach at the Trump/Vance HQ. It’s 9:40 p.m., and still an early night… But so far, the campaign is encouraged by some battleground state exit polls of certain demographic groups like Latino, Black, and young men leaning their way. But as this intense and historic campaign comes to close, I’m reflecting specifically on women’s role in this election. No matter how the results shake out, women have proven to be a forceful constituency in American politics –one that has shaped the contours of this campaign, and campaigns to come. I’ve covered four presidential campaigns, but this is my first as a mom. That’s changed how I think about politics. Issues of women’s health, the economy, and making life better for our kids are not only front and center in this election, but also personal for me. I’ve tried to be more empathetic in my coverage, aiming to find the humanity in politics.”

Caitlin Huey-Burns, CBS News political correspondent

Georgia

"Election Day is a rollercoaster for everyone, but as someone on a visa and unable to vote, it’s like a rollercoaster without a seatbelt. I’ve been in this country for 16 years and spectated—-but not participated in—four election cycles, with each one having higher and higher stakes. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hopelessness and lack of control, but I'm trying to trust the people around me to make the right decision I cannot make for myself."

Naisha Roy, student journalist

Hawaii

"I have mixed feelings. I'm glad this day is finally here. Now we just have to wait and see what wins, common sense or bigotry and misogyny. Selfishness, or understanding that we live in a world where we need to stand up for what's right, stand up against the bullies. I am expecting the worst; hoping for the best. At least I know, despite the outcome, I'll continue fighting for the side where all people are treated with respect. I meant to spend my day in complete solitude hiking to keep my bubble of emotions from bursting. However the good old adult distraction—work—pulled me to a local coffee shop where people like myself were glued to their laptops; wearing their USA T-shirts or pins and 'I Voted' stickers. A sense of normalcy, I guess."

Oksana Enriquez, project executive

Idaho

"I voted, of course. But now I'm moving on. I went to work, stopped at the grocery store on the way home. I'm not watching the results but I am getting alerts on my phone and it seems like Trump might win. There were only two choices, so it's not a huge surprise."

Wendy Fast, administrative assistant

Illinois

"I’m excited to be voting in my 17th election. You had to be 21 when I first started voting, and I only missed one—Jimmy Carter in 1976 when I was away in Seattle—and couldn’t mail in the ballot. Everything was very efficient at my polling place. There was a long line, and I could have gone right to the front because I’m so old, but I didn’t want to do that. The whole thing was only about 45 minutes. I’m anxious to find out what happens in Wisconsin since I’m across the border. I can only hope things turn out well. I would hate to have a criminal as my next president."

Elaine Levin

Indiana

“As a childless (not) cat lady, a selfie felt appropriate for the moment. I’ve spent much of the day solo after voting early last week—and saving my sticker, of course. I’ve basically been cycling through every version of a big feeling, sometimes all of them at once, which probably shows on my face. As a woman in her 40s, I find it exhausting that we’re still fighting for the right to decide what happens to our own bodies or, you know, not bleed out in a hospital parking lot because our government has criminalized necessary forms of medical care. But I’ll be on the front lines for as long as it takes so the women and girls behind me get everything they deserve. As a Hoosier who spent a huge chunk of her adult life in NYC and LA before moving back to Indianapolis—a blue dot in a red state—I take great pride in reminding people on the coasts that there are a whole lot of progressive Midwesterners out here fighting for change, sometimes in incredibly hostile environments. As a human, I also have a lot of hope, something I’m almost afraid to say out loud given the 2016 of it all. But it’s true.”

Abby Gardner, writer and creator of We Have Notes

Iowa

"I voted early, the day early voting opened in Iowa. I didn't want to leave anything open to mistake since abortion access is at risk. The Des Moines Register released an article this weekend that Harris is up by three points according to a recent poll, and I hope to God that's true. I have my college classes to distract me today, and I don't want to just sit with my nerves and wait for election results, but I don't think there's any other choice. It's already dangerous for pregnant people to be in Iowa right now, and it's only going to get more dangerous if Trump wins. I can't imagine making a life long-term in a state, let alone a country, that doesn't do everything it can to support me or my decisions, and only values my ability to reproduce."

Caroline Siebels-Lindquist, president of Students for Reproductive Justice at Drake University

Kansas

"I voted in advance last week, as did 650,000 other Kansans, so Election Day is business as usual for me. That’s not to say I’m not anxiously awaiting the results of many races across Kansas and the nation. I’m Irish Catholic so I tend to assume the worst, but deep-down, I believe that Americans will come through and elect thoughtful, competent leaders who will preserve our democracy, secure our fundamental rights and work hard on behalf of the people."

Laura Kelly, governor of Kansas

Kentucky

"After serving three terms in the Kentucky state legislature, this election day I'm on the ballot unopposed, but I'm moving to a seat on Louisville's city council. I want to work more closely with my neighbors and get more done, outside of a toxic supermajority following national trends like banning abortion and trans healthcare. This morning I hosted a free Election Day meet 'n greet breakfast at a local bagel shop. I met dozens of new constituents and heard concerns about speed bumps, the tree canopy, invasive plant species, solar panels, and school bus routes. I came home feeling less anxious about what's happening at the national level and more focused on human-to-human connection in our neighborhoods. Kamala does her job and I do mine and we all have a role to play."

Josie Raymond, Kentucky State Representative

Louisiana

"Just voted at my polling location! After 12 hours of phone banking and canvassing, I went back to the site to finish more phone banking til the polls close at 8 pm here in Louisiana. What I’m feeling, thinking, experiencing: I am overwhelmed with emotions! Feeling anxious but also excited! I really believe America understood the assignment, well aware of what’s at stake, and going to put the right person in office."

Kaitlyn Joshua, activist and co-creator of Abortion in America

Maine

"Election night this year feels like we are all waiting on the results of an STD test. None of us know what to expect, but I’m remaining nauseously optimistic that the little orange man will not prevail. On our little island, there was no line at the voting station (our community center) but there were lots of kind neighbors who provided baked goods to the volunteers, and there were lots of smiles and sighs. It felt especially poignant that the three volunteers at the polls were my elders, and were women.Unfortunately, Trump had at one politically genius realization, which was that appealing to people’s selfishness can be a winning strategy, whereas the democrats largely appeal to people’s altruism. This can be a tough sell. Now, we wait. But no matter what, I strongly believe that real change lies in collective community power and grassroots action. This is where I will always place my faith and my trust and my energy."

Mira Ptacin, writer

Maryland

"I'm running for school board in Carroll County, Maryland. Many have been surprised that Maryland was just named to a list of the top 10 states for book banning, and this is largely in part because of recent efforts in my county. Despite this upsetting news, I've been really pleased today to have many conversations with voters who are deeply concerned about children losing the freedom to read and learn, and folks upset that the professional expertise of teachers and librarians is being questioned. Polls have been busy—both today and during early voting, which I take to be a good sign that more people are paying attention and showing up to exercise their right to vote. I feel optimistic and proud of the campaign I've run, and look forward to advocating for the many families and educators who are not currently represented on our Board."

Amanda Jozkowski, Carroll County Public School Board

Massachusetts

“I spent my day thinking of all the women fighting for their freedoms, of young people with hope in their hearts casting their first ballot, and of every American who voted believing that we can build a country that doesn’t just work for those at the top, but that works for everyone.”

Elizabeth Warren, U.S. senator

Michigan

"Woke up feeling anxious and an alphabet soup of emotions. Went for a walk in my neighborhood, ate breakfast, sent a note to my team to make sure we all take care of ourselves today, and then headed out to vote. I wish I was feeling more excited about such a monumental event. But my feelings are heavily overshadowed by the anxiety of having Trump back in office. I hope after this Election Day I can feel both relieved and joyful of having a woman in power who defends our rights and prioritizes equity."

Irene Liu, cofounder and CEO of Chiyo

Minnesota

"My sisters and I are public school teachers in Minnesota, just like Governor Tim Walz was. We’re voting today to protect our rights as women and preserve the Department of Education. Although I teach at a middle school, high school students across the state who are 18 are encouraged to register, find their polling place, and get out and vote."

Lydia Sour, middle school teacher

Mississippi

"Between MSBWR’s Power of the Sister Vote Boot Camp, Black Youth Vote training and Get Out The Vote activities over the course of the past year, my staff, team, and family members 'left it all on the field' as they say in football. I feel good about all the work that my team and partners have done and continue doing, even today, to ensure that our community can exercise their right to vote, because our vote is our power. Fair wages, affordable healthcare, and access to safe and affordable child care is on the ballot today and we all deserve to win."

Cassandra Welchlin, executive director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable

Missouri

"My day started with heavy rain and flooded roadways between me and my polling site, but much to my surprise it ended with a beautiful sunset that felt symbolic. I’ve experienced all of the emotions leading up to this day and even though it feels like I’m surrounded by yard signs and social media posts from folks in my area supporting the other side, I still find myself filled with hope for our future."

Jill Milyard, technical product owner

Montana

"Last night, I gathered at the Elks Club in Livingston, Montana, population 8,000, to watch election returns with friends and subscribers of County Highway, a national newspaper about America that my husband co-publishes. More than a hundred people came. We ate bison sliders, elk sloppy joes, and homemade donuts, and we kept the volume turned way down on the bar's two TVs, so the crowd—a mixed group of progressive leftists, disenchanted Democrats, true conservatives, and political agnostics—talked, ate, drank, and talked some more. Montana is famously a purple state, a place where you don't always share your neighbor's views, and when I told friends and invitees that our guests would include people from across the political spectrum, they shrugged, came anyway, enjoyed themselves. 'This is America,' one said, 'We all have to be adults and get along.'"

Amanda Fortini, writer

Nebraska

"As a woman who works in the mental health community and my husband as a police officer, we were both raised to believe in the duty of public service. Being from Nebraska, I don’t have a huge impact on the presidential race, but I can make a difference in local races and issues. Our state government controls so many important issues which will have a far greater impact on our daily lives than that of the federal government."

Julie James, patient care coordinator

Nevada

"Our family team is small, but mighty. We have worked hard and look forward to making history on the school board in District E."

Kamilah Bywaters, Candidate for CCSD School Board Trustee

New Hampshire

"I started this HERstoric Election Day by standing in the longest line I have ever seen in my polling place with my daughters and voting for Kamala Harris and Joyce Craig for governor. My eldest daughter is the same age now as I was when I gave birth to her, and she has fewer rights than I did when she was born. Together we are going to work to get out every single vote TODAY because our rights are on the ballot."

Stefany Shaheen, former city councillor and police commissioner

New Jersey

"On today's historic election day, I am proud and honored that I get to vote for myself, my family, and my country. As a mom to two boys, I want them to know that voting is your choice and your choice alone. Just like in life, people are never going to agree, but you need to do what is right for yourself and your loved ones."

Lori Hong, mom of two

New Mexico

"I'm spending Election Day at work. This election has been nerve wracking. I work at a university and interact daily with students who are first time voters. It’s important to me that they understand how this election will impact their experience in this country and their educational experience."

Dannelle Kirven, senior student success specialist at University of New Mexico's African American Student Services

New York

"I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep and was dreading checking my phone. I’ve honestly been back and forth between the anger of my outer core and the shuddering sadness of my inner core. I’m scared for everyone, friends, family, even strangers that will inevitably be affected by the vitriol of this vile man and his minions. I feel selfish for feeling hopeless, but I think people should be allowed to honor how they’re feeling in this moment."

Anya Tisdale, beauty creator

North Carolina

“I spent the afternoon monitoring the polls and checking in with suburban women organizers and volunteers, ensuring that every one of their friends and family members gets out to vote.”

Janice Robinson, North Carolina Program director for Red Wine & Blue

North Dakota

"It feels a big moment and I'm unsure of how things will go. I don't think I'll feel happy with either result."

Laura Paige, manager

Ohio

"This election means everything. I am torn between being here with the women of the Women's Issues Network and being at home with my daughter. These women have taken me under their wings, fully accepting me. Without them, I would be absolutely panic-stricken. I know that they are helping me make a difference for my daughter."

Crystal Gnau, president of the Women's Issue Network

Oklahoma

"I’m definitely in the nauseously optimistic camp. To keep the butterflies at bay, I am trying to remember how it felt on election night 2008 and conjure a sequel. Reading messages from European friends who are anxiously watching overseas, saying they feel like this is their election, too. The whole world is holding its breath. They know what’s on the line. I, too, am just waiting to exhale. And, in the meantime, chilling with John King."

Amanda Tunnell, freelance writer

Oregon

"I’m glued to the TV. I’m a nervous wreck. But I’m clinging to every ounce of hope. I’ve voted in three presidential elections and twice for a woman nominee, which feels incredibly historic and shows the progress we’ve made as a country. My mom gave me this Kamala Harris T-shirt when she became vice president, and I’m hopeful the message will also hold true for Harris in this election: The first but not the last."

Alexa Phillips, global communications manager

Pennsylvania

"The loses in Pennsylvania are devastating for anyone who cares about women’s health and autonomy. I did voter protection in Philadelphia and visited over 20 polling sites. The turnout was good in Philadelphia so I did not expect the result. I am hoping to see a woman become President in my lifetime, but alas it is not in 2024. But I'm not giving up. Just in for a longer haul."

Kathryn Kolbert, public interest attorney and co-author of Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom

Rhode Island

"I'm feeling excitement. I feel confident in a victory tonight for my race and also optimistic Kamala will win as well. Tonight, so much is on the line but long as we leave it all out on the field we’ll be in good shape."

Corey Jones, candidate for Providence School Board

South Carolina

"Today, I led a Chamber of Mothers national meeting by Zoom. We meet every two weeks. We came together to share our feelings about the election, to be in community, to celebrate one another, and to share gratitude for the unity we have created among American mothers - no matter what happens. Just two years ago, we came together to unite mothers as advocates to create a better America, and we see the fruit of our work in the addition of paid leave, childcare, and maternal health to the conversations leading up to this election."

Erin Erenberg, cofounder and CEO of Chamber of Mothers

South Dakota

“I thought I’d be emotional voting for potentially the first woman president alongside my two sons, but honestly I was kind of angry angry that here, in South Dakota where voters are weighing in on a measure that could restore abortion access to the state, my rights, my worth, my humanity as a pregnant person is on the ballot and being determined by my fellow voters. It shouldn’t be this way, but I’m proud my boys watched their mom—again—vote for herself and for what is right.”

Danielle Campoamor, freelance writer

Tennessee

"Election Day is a reminder of the power every voice holds. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share people’s stories while witnessing many voters participating in shaping the future. As a news reporter, it’s been exciting to see such a big voter turnout. It shows how passionate people are to have their voices heard. Now that Election Day is here, it feels surreal. We’ve been working to inform people on topics appearing on this ballot for months.”

Joylyn Bukovac, news reporter

Texas

"I brought my laptop, notepad, bottles of wine, and phone to watch election night at my brother’s house in Austin with our parents and friends from the neighborhood, along with eight children under the age of five. By 8 p.m. our time, the adults were getting pretty anxious. Someone mentioned feeling like they were going to throw up. As the results rolled in, parents went back and forth with musings like 'oh, that’s promising!' and 'I don’t know—I’m nervous.' The kids kept everyone grounded to earth by toddling, cooing, and getting extremely pumped about Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. Before bedtime hit, a friend started explaining both presidential candidates to a 4-year-old, who was pretty sure that when you become president, you have to hold the office 'until you die.' When she heard the description of Trump’s policies, she responded: 'That sounds like my mom’s old boss.'"

Olivia Messer, a veteran Texas journalist and the editor-in-chief of The Barbed Wire, a digital media outlet covering Texas

Utah

“Feeling so hopeful today. I took my daughter to vote for her first time. And it was historic in so many ways. She had the option to vote for our first female president and someone I believe will make real and lasting change and encourage unity. I believe this next generation is so strong and so brave and I was so happy to be part of helping her vote today for her and all of our futures.”

Bronwyn Newport, reality TV star

Vermont

“What I’ve seen during this campaign is pure joy and excitement. I’ve been all over Vermont and to Pennsylvania, and I have faith that when the vote is counted, Kamala Harris will be our president-elect. Americans are energized to ensure we have a president that puts working people first, respects our democracy and freedoms, and leads with empathy and compassion. I’m feeling hopeful and optimistic, but we all remember 2016, so our volunteers are working hard to turn out every single vote, all the way through the finish line.”

Becca Balint, U.S. Representative

Virginia

“After a day connecting with other suburban women to make sure they voted, I waited for election results with my husband and son.”

Lara Bury, Virginia deputy director for Red Wine & Blue

Washington

"My beliefs are my own but humanity is all of ours. I’ve chosen to vote for our collective humanity today."

Michele Lampach, lead for Bobbie for Change

Washington, D.C.

"Today, I’m filled with so much hope—for the safety of our communities, the progress of our country, and the future of Black women and girls. Getting the chance to knock doors with my daughters to elect candidates who will fight to protect their freedoms is a moment I’ll never forget. All the work we’ve put in has led to this day, and I know it will be a historic one."

Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action

West Virginia

"This election is quite possibly the most important election of my lifetime. I'm voting in this election to do my part in making sure that everyone has autonomy over their bodies and their lives. The lives of women and those who seek accessibility to good quality healthcare, abortions, and other reproductive services and screenings are on the line. Our fundamental human rights and our democracy is on the ballot up and down."

Brittni McGuire, president of the Women's Health Center of West Virginia

Wisconsin

"I have cast my ballot. Our local volunteers at the town hall displayed Midwest nice! No wait in the voting cubicles with hand sewn curtains. This brings a culmination of emotions including polarization fatigue. I hope for a return to civility and bipartisan approaches to solve real issues faced in rural Wisconsin communities. Health should not be determined by your zip code. My vote is my voice."

Nicole Schweitzer, health care professional, rural community leader, and girl mom

Wyoming

"As a Wyoming Republican, I feel the sense of anticipation and hope, looking to see conservative values strongly represented. I have high hopes for outcomes to emphasize local priorities like energy, agriculture, and small government."

Karen Linn, kindergarden teacher

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 2024 presidential election was called in favor of Donald Trump. The Republican Party also retook the Senate overnight, easing the path for the president-elect and his allies to pass restrictive legislation on reproductive rights, immigration, and more.

And yet, several candidates and initiatives made history Wednesday, from momentous "firsts" to expanded protections for the rights and citizens at risk in Trump's Unites States. Ahead, the historic victories worth celebrating today—with, hopefully, more to come.

Andy Kim is the first Korean American to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Rep. Andy Kim (D) has been elected a Senator, taking over the New Jersey seat formerly held by fellow Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez, as reported by USA Today. Rep. Kim is the first Korean American to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

On X, the Senator-elect wrote, "We just won our Senate race! As a son of immigrants, a public school kid, I never could’ve imagined I’d get to serve as a US Senator. I’m deeply humbled and grateful to NJ and for everyone who got us here. I promise I’ll serve with honor and integrity as a public servant for all."

Sarah McBride is the first openly transgender person to be elected to Congress.

Sarah McBride (D) of Delaware has become the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, securing a victory over the Republican John Whalen III, as reported by NBC News. Rep. McBride has served as a state senator for two terms.

On X, the Congresswoman-elect wrote, "Thank you, Delaware! Because of your votes and your values, I am proud to be your next member of Congress.

"Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and health care are available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us."

Two Black women will serve in the Senate for the first time.

The first Black woman Senator was Carol Moseley Braun, who served starting in 1993, but 2024 marks the first time that two Black women have been elected to the U.S. Senate simultaneously.

Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) won a Senate seat for Delaware, and Angela Alsobrooks (D) won a Senate seat for Maryland.

On X, Blunt Rochester wrote, "From the bottom of my heart, Delaware, thank you"

Alsobrooks wrote, "From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every Marylander. To serve this state, my home, is the honor of a lifetime."

New York passed an amendment to expand protections for pregnant people, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ people, and many more groups at risk for discrimination.

New York voters have passed Prop. 1, also known as the "Equal Rights Amendment." This amendment expands the protections established in the state constitution's section 11, according to NBC New York.

Prop. 1 makes discrimination unlawful on the following bases: "race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or], religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy."

In a press release, the executive director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, Donna Lieberman, said, "No matter what happens in the rest of the country, New York is moving forward. In New York, equality and inclusion are now the law of the land" (via HuffPost).

Arizona passed an amendment to guarantee abortion access.

Abortion access has been one of the main issues in the run-up to this election, and states are taking action to protect the rights of abortion seekers. As such, Arizona has passed a constitutional amendment which will guarantee access to abortion up to 24 weeks, as reported by NPR.

Missouri passed an amendment to end abortion ban.

Similarly, Missouri voters have opted to end their state's ban on abortions, which allowed the procedure only in case of medical emergency, reports NPR. The new amendment allows abortions to the point of fetal viability, which is approximately 24 weeks.

Lili Reinhart has responded to the millions of votes that eventually led to Donald Trump's reelection.

"I cannot fathom the feeling of the women who came forward about their sexual assault at the hands of Trump. Seeing millions of people vote for their abuser," Reinhart wrote on X hours before the election was called for the Republican candidate.

"My heart absolutely breaks for these women. I believe you, and I am so sorry."

Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct on several occasions, as the Guardian reports. His accusers include Miss Washington 2013 Cassandra Searles, Miss Finland 2006 Ninni Laaksonen, People reporter Natasha Stoynoff, journalist E. Jean Carroll, and even the President's ex-wife Ivana Trump (who later said, "I referred to this as a 'rape,' but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense").

There have however been many more accusations of sexual harassment leveled at the President over the years. A video of Trump on Access Hollywood in 2005, which first surfaced in 2016, is once again making the rounds online. In that video, the Apprentice presenter proudly made disturbing comments about women, including: "They let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the p***y."

The presidential election was called for the tycoon in the early hours of Nov. 6, with 277 electoral college votes for Trump at time of writing to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris' 224, per the Guardian.

Reinhart is one of an overwhelming majority of celebrities to have endorsed or supported Kamala Harris in some way, including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Anne Hathaway, Cardi B, Aubrey Plaza, Stevie Nicks, Eminem, Meghann Fahy, Katy Perry, Zoe Saldaña, Will Ferrell, Katie Holmes, Viola Davis, John Legend, Sarah Jessica Parker, and so many more.

A handful of public figures endorsed Donald Trump, including Elon Musk, Kanye West, Hulk Hogan, Jon Voigt, and Russell Brand.

Kamala Harris has lost the race to become president.

The Associated Press called the race in Donald Trump's favor in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Trump will assume office in January for the second time. His running mate JD Vance will serve as his vice president.

The race marked Trump's third consecutive run for president as the Republican nominee. He beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and served as president between 2016 and 2020 before losing to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. President Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential race in July, clearing the way for Vice President Harris to run against Trump.

Harris had described the choice between herself and Trump as being "about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division."

Harris is expected to address supporters later Wednesday.

While Trump's campaign promises have been vague and wide-ranging, his official platform promises to "carry out the largest deportation operation in American history," "restore peace in Europe and in the Middle East," and "rebuild our cities."

The former president has also vowed to roll back protections for transgender people, shutter the Department of Education, and remove all undocumented individuals. He has also suggested he would unleash the Justice Department on his political enemies.

Speaking to supporters early Wednesday morning, Trump said, "I will fight for you and your family and your future, every single day I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body." He added: "This will truly be the golden age of America."

World leaders began to congratulate the president-elect in the early hours of Wednesday, with French president Emmanuel Macron saying, "Ready to work together as we have done for four years," and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy praising Trump's “commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs.”

Though Trump is scheduled to be sentenced for 34 felony counts later this month, political analysts have attested that becoming the president-elect will likely allow Trump to wriggle free of the charges.

Trump will be inaugurated for a second time in January.

Much has been written about Donald and Melania Trump's visits to the U.K. while the host of The Apprentice was still the President of the United States. In her new memoir, Melania offers a new account of her brushes with royalty, and suggests she's essentially pen pals with King Charles himself.

After visiting the U.K. in 2018, and allegedly leaving the Queen waiting, Donald and Melania returned the following year to spend more time with the British Royal Family.

"Donald and I hosted an intimate dinner in honor of Prince Charles and the Duchess [Camilla] at the U.S. ambassador’s residence—a perfect expression of the enduring ties between our nations," Melania wrote (via Vanity Fair).

She continued, "Despite the tumultuous backdrop of British politics at the time surrounding Brexit and changes at the Prime Minister’s office, the Queen and her family extended a warm welcome to us, treating us with the utmost hospitality."

Melania also paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth in her account, writing, "As we bid farewell to Her Majesty, we extended a cordial invitation for her return visit to the United States." The former model continued, "She expressed her gratitude with a warm smile. Sadly, Her Majesty wasn’t able to visit with us again before her death in 2022."

Perhaps most notably, Melania mentioned an ongoing correspondence with King Charles, saying, "[O]ur friendship with the Royal Family continues, and we exchange letters with King Charles to this day."

Melania's 2018 and 2019 visits to the U.K. weren't the only times she met with King Charles, either. In her memoir, the former First Lady revealed that she actually met Charles in November 2005 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

"Our paths had crossed many years ago in New York City," Melania wrote. "This time we engaged in an interesting conversation about his deep-rooted commitment to environmental conservation."

So, there you have it. While their friendship may seem unlikely, Charles and Melania apparently write letters to one another.

Chappell Roan wants her position on the upcoming presidential election to be known, and not taken out of context.

After comments the singer made in a Guardian interview made the rounds over the weekend—with people questioning whether she might vote for Donald Trump despite her openly liberal views—Roan has responded in no uncertain terms on TikTok.

"I have encouraged people to use critical thinking skills, learn about what they're voting for, learn about who they're voting for, and ask questions. And it's being completely taken out of context, per usual," the "Hot to Go" singer said, after fans took issue with her refusal to endorse a presidential candidate.

"There is nuance to what I say in interviews, and I think it's important that people use critical thinking."

The musician continued, "If you come to my shows, if you read my full interviews, if you literally know anything about me and what I stand for, you know that this is not lip service, this is not virtue signaling, that my actions have always paved the way for my project and the people who really know me.

"Actions speak louder than words, and actions speak louder than an endorsement."

Roan then went on to read back her quote from the Guardian, which was as follows: "I have so many issues with our government in every way. There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote—vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city."

She then went on to stress how important trans rights were to her in the upcoming election and beyond.

"Hear it from my mouth, if you're still wondering," Roan added on TikTok. "No, I'm not voting for Trump, and yes, I will always question those in power and those making decisions over other people. And I will stand up for what's right and what I believe in."

She concluded, "I'm sorry that you fell for the clickbait."

Though the performer disabled comments on her video, people weighed in after Pop Crave shared the clip on X.

Once again, the room was divided, with some users agreeing with Roan's message, and others expressing disappointment.

"Chappell Roan is the type of celebrity y’all don’t like.. she keeps it real and is honest," wrote one person.

"And she’s correct?? Why are people mad lmao," said someone else.

Roan is a queer artist, and is known for regularly standing up for the causes she believes in, but some social media users believe she should have made an endorsement, à la Taylor Swift.

"i’m sorry but an endorsement for this razor thin election would be more helpful than whatever this vague statement was," added another.

Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign trail outfits have all been noteworthy, but the smartly tailored suiting she wore to debate former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Sept. 10. was always going to be particularly significant. The black power suit and white pussy bow blouse with tonal stripes visually contrasted the cobalt blue suit and bright red tie worn by her opponent—a clever choice for a candidate looking to make history in more than one way. Vice President Harris was styled by Leslie Fremar, who she began working with at the start of her campaign.

Harris accessorized the look with her signature pearl stud earrings, gold bangle bracelets, and a couple of rings. Her hair was styled in polished waves while her makeup added soft definition for the camera with nude pink lipstick and brown eye shadow.

Harris has a signature look, honed through years of working as a lawyer and politician. Since the launch of her presidential bid in July, however, Harris been taking strategic risks with her style on the campaign trail. The most obvious change has been a gradual expansion of her color palette to include brighter, lighter shades like powder blue and lilac alongside the office-friendly neutrals she generally favors.

With her 2024 presidential run, Harris also seems to be doubling down on her commitment to spotlighting labels led by women and designers of color. In August, Harris opened and closed the Democratic National Convention wearing bespoke Chloé suits designed by newly appointed creative director Chemena Kamali. On night one, Harris confidently strode on stage sporting a "coconut brown" wool grain de poudre jacket, flared trousers, and a white crepe de chine lavallière blouse from the French label, in a possible homage to the tan suit Barack Obama wore during a 2014 press conference. On the fourth night of the convention, Harris eschewed suffragette white in favor of a second Chloé suit—this time in navy—and a coordinating pinstripe blouse to accept her party's nomination for president.

At press time, exact details about Vice President Harris's outfit were not available. The Marie Claire team will update this post with more information when it's available.

A royal author recently claimed that Queen Elizabeth found Donald Trump to be "very rude" during his State Visits.

In his book, A Voyage Around The Queen, via the Daily Mail, royal expert Craig Brown alleged, "A few weeks after President Trump's visit... she confided in one lunch guest that she found him 'very rude.'" However, a former royal family employee has suggested this account of the Queen is not only incorrect, but "disrespectful."

In an interview with GB News, Jack Stooks, a former gardener for King Charles, said of the Trump anecdote, "I think that this completely does [disrespect her memory]. There doesn't seem any points or reasons for this to have come about."

He continued, "To suddenly start claiming that about somebody who has passed without allowing them to defend themselves and say, ‘well, actually, hang on a minute, that wasn't quite what was said.'"

Stooks also claimed that any royal fan should realize the Queen wouldn't say something so derogatory. "We know what the Queen was like as a person," he told the outlet. "We know that in her reign, she never put a foot wrong. So why would she suddenly get to a point in her life where she suddenly goes, ‘oh, let's put my foot wrong?"

Clearly outraged by the idea that Queen Elizabeth would disparage Trump, Stooks exclaimed, "It's not something she would do. It's just ridiculous."

Stooks also suggested that King Charles would be very disappointed to hear a negative anecdote about his late mother. "I don't understand why someone would want to bring down the late Queen's way of life," Stooks said.

Reflecting on Queen Elizabeth's incredible legacy, Stooks said, "Throughout her career, she was amazing. And to have somebody trying to ignite some kind of flames into it, it's not right to do that, especially to the monarchy right now. They’re dealing with so much."

As well as suggesting the Queen had called Trump "very rude," royal expert Brown also wrote that the monarch "particularly disliked the way [Trump] couldn't stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting." He continued, "She also believed President Trump 'must have some sort of arrangement' with his wife Melania, or else why would she have remained married to him?"

During her reign, Queen Elizabeth II hosted then-president Donald Trump and his wife Melania on two separate occasions. And according to a new report, the monarch was less than impressed with the American politician.

Royal expert Craig Brown has penned a new book, A Voyage Around The Queen, and the Daily Mail has shared excerpts from the publication. Noting that the monarch hosted everyone from Vladimir Putin to Robert Mugabe, Brown said of the royal, "A few weeks after President Trump's visit... she confided in one lunch guest that she found him 'very rude.'"

According to Brown, the Queen "particularly disliked the way he couldn't stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting." Obviously, it's hard to believe anyone would meet the Queen and not give her their utmost attention. However, the former American president appears to have aggravated the iconic royal.

Queen Elizabeth allegedly questioned Trump's relationship with his wife Melania, too. "She also believed President Trump 'must have some sort of arrangement' with his wife Melania, or else why would she have remained married to him?"

It would appear as though Trump viewed his meetings with the Queen very differently. According to the Daily Mail, Trump told Fox News, "We were laughing and having fun. And her people said she hasn't had so much fun in 25 years."

He continued, "Then I got criticized for it because they said we were having too much fun... I feel I know her so well and she certainly knows me very well right now, but we have a very good relationship with the United Kingdom."

During a visit to the United Kingdom in July 2018, Trump reportedly kept the monarch waiting for more than 10 minutes. However, the former president later claimed that he was early for the meeting. "I was about 15 minutes early and I'm waiting with my wife and that's fine," he told the crowd at a Philadelphia rally. "Hey, it's the Queen, right? We can wait. But I'm a little early." He continued, "And I didn't know this—it was supposed to last 15 minutes but it lasted like an hour because we got along. And she liked our first lady and our first lady liked her."

New and disturbing details regarding the apparent assassination attempt on the former president of the United States continue to emerge, and they now include the royal family.

According to a FBI analysis of the 20-year-old shooter's two cell phones and laptop, the now-deceased suspect not only searched for former President Donald Trump prior to the July 13 shooting that left one spectator dead and three people wounded, but also searched for President Joe Biden and the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton.

The same FBI analysis of the shooter's electronics also revealed that he went so far as to download pictures of Princess Kate.

The shooter—who was a registered Republican—also looked up information about FBI Director Christopher Wray and US Attorney General Merrick Garland. The 20-year-old also searched for the dates of both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention.

The Princess of Wales made only her second formal public appearance at this year's Wimbledon men's final on July 14, the day after the alleged assassination attempt. Upon her arrival, she received a standing ovation from the Wimbledon crowd.

According to an update from the Associated Press, the shooter purchased 50 rounds of ammunition for the "AR-style rifle" used in the assassination attempt the day of the shooting.

The weapon was legally purchased in 2013 and registered to the shooter's father.

According to CBS News, the shooter's family is cooperating with authorities as they continue to investigate not only how the shooting could occur (the former president has an assigned Secret Service detail, and both local and federal authorities were warned of a suspicious man in the area prior to the shooting) but the shooter's motives.

Several well-known members of the Republican party—including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Congressman Tim Burchett—have blamed female Secret Service agents for the shooting, going so far as to call Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle a "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hire."

"It is an insult to the women of our agency to imply that they are unqualified based on gender," Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a written statement. "Such baseless assertions undermine the professionalism, dedication and expertise of our workforce. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion ensures that we attract the best talent, fostering a robust and effective team that reflects the society we serve. We stand united against any attempt to discredit our personnel and their invaluable contributions to our mission and are appalled by the disparaging and disgusting comments against any of our personnel."

The royal family has not commented on the latest update regarding the shooter's internet search of the Princess of Wales, and historically does not comment on or share any information about their ongoing security efforts that keep members of the monarchy safe.

As the FBI has noted, the investigation into the shooting and the perpetrator's motives are ongoing.

Donald Trump has never been one to shy away from making big claims, and he's got a new cause to drive him. The ex-President spoke out about something that really bothers him, and what he'd prioritize if re-elected: getting Prince Harry deported from the United States.

Following a CPAC event in Maryland this weekend, Trump spoke to the Daily Express about his feelings on the former royal. (Spoiler: they weren't pleasant.)

"I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me," Trump said.

Trump seems to have great sympathy for Queen Elizabeth, who passed away in September 2022. There had been great controversy surrounding Harry, his wife Meghan Markle, and the Queen.

He further linked this sentiment to the Biden administration, slamming them for what he feels was going too easy on Harry in regards to the DHS controversy.

"I think they have been too gracious to him after what he has done," Trump said.

He seems to be alluding to a battle between the Department of Homeland Security and a watchdog group, who are suing the federal government in an attempt to obtain docs from Harry's immigration papers/application for his visa. Harry is not a U.S. citizen yet, and last year, he confessed in his memoir that he'd done a number of drugs in his twenties.

The watchdog group feels this clear admission violates DHS entry protocol, while Homeland Security claims that Harry has a right to privacy, and this memoir confession isn't the same as a statement under oath.

It seems that Trump would have the means to further this agenda against Harry if elected.

If Harry were to return to the U.K., it would not be in the form of a royal welcome. There had been rumors that Harry would take up a temporary working royal role as his father, King Charles, is treated for cancer, but last week, it was confirmed that this is not the case.

"Whatever has been discussed between William and the King is private, but it is absolutely and categorically clear that [William] would not allow Harry to return," one source close to the situation told the Mirror.

Today, a jury at the Manhattan Federal Court in New York City ruled in favor of E. Jean Carroll in her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. In the ruling, they determined that Trump owed $83.3 million in damages for statements he made after she accused him of sexual assault in a 2019 story for New York Magazine.

It was one of two defamation suits Carroll filed (just last year, Carroll also won a civil suit against Trump, in which that jury found Trump liable for the sexual abuse of Carroll in the mid-1990s and for defamation against her) citing comments that Trump made between 2019 and 2022 which she says negatively impacted her reputation and opened her up to a slew of verbal abuse, including threats to her safety. Trump’s statements included comments that she was a “whack job” and that her claims were “absolutely ridiculous.” Carroll argues that, in addition to putting her life at risk, the statements destroyed her prolific career as a writer for outlets such ELLE, Esquire, and Outsider. 

The New York Times reports that after the verdict was delivered, several of Carroll’s friends and family members, who were in attendance, could be seen wiping away tears. This trial brings to an end the lengthy, highly publicized legal battle that Carroll has been fighting over the last two years. The trial has thrust Carroll into the spotlight as Trump has battled numerous other legal battles and attempted a second run at the presidency, but Carroll and her lawyers say that they’d like the suit to simply “make him stop” his public remarks about her. 

"This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down," Carroll said after the trial.

Trump, meanwhile, was informed about the verdict while on his way to LaGuardia airport in New York ahead of a Las Vegas campaign rally when he was informed about the result. On his social media site, Truth Social, he called the jury's decision "absolutely ridiculous."