Decryption | These presidents who loved the queen so much

(New York) The irony is that the American president responsible for attending the last tribute to Elizabeth II was born to a mother who had more than mixed feelings for the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Richard Hetu
special collaboration

“Don’t bow down to her! “, Launched Catherine (Jean) Biden, proud Irish Catholic born Finnegan, to his “Joey” when he learned that he was going to have an audience with the British sovereign within a delegation of senators, in 1982.

Joe Biden, who tells the anecdote in Promises to Keep, his memoirs published in 2007, does not specify how he greeted Elizabeth II during this first meeting. But he opened up about the impression left on him by his second meeting, a few months after his election to the presidency.

“I don’t think she would be insulted by it, but she reminded me of my mother with her looks and her generosity,” he said.

One wonders what Jean would think of this comparison. But Joe Biden’s reaction is nothing exceptional.

The 13 American presidents that the late queen knew personally all fell under her spell, without exception.

The very first, Harry Truman, set the tone in 1951 by welcoming Elizabeth to the White House while she was still a princess.

“As soon as someone meets you, they immediately fall in love,” the 33rd told him.^e President.

This sentiment today seems to be reflected in the way Americans, or at least their media, have behaved since the death of Elizabeth II. A headline from New York Times summarizes the atmosphere: “Was Elizabeth the queen of America? This week, that seemed to be the case. »

This attitude may come as a surprise from a country whose declaration of independence depicts the British monarch as a “tyrant”. But one of the authors of this declaration, John Adams, ended up regretting the way in which the conflict between the American colonies and Great Britain had been personalized in this solemn document.

And he was quick to lay the foundations of the “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom from his first meeting with King George III as a diplomat, in 1785. Admittedly, the two countries were separated by an ocean and different forms of government, but they were united by language, religion and culture, Adams argued before a stirred monarch.

love and fairy tale

Also, in 2011, when Elizabeth II gave Barack Obama a collection of letters, some of which dated back to the American Revolution, as a gift, the recipient was able to quip: “It was only a temporary incident in the relationship. »

Unlike his ex-vice-president, Barack Obama did not see his mother in the monarch, but his grandmother “Toots”, a courteous and direct woman who did not tolerate idiots.

“She really is one of my favorite people,” he said in 2016 after a private lunch at Windsor Castle the day after the 90^e birthday of Elizabeth II.

That day, Prince Philip was responsible for driving, in a Land Rover, the Queen and the presidential couple, who arrived in the gardens of the castle by helicopter, within the property for lunch. This rare delicacy was perhaps due to the fact that the queen had “fallen completely in love [d’Obama]so much so that she often asked her courtiers if they could arrange for him to come to Britain” after his presidency, royal author Tom Quinn wrote in Kensington Palacehis memoirs published in 2020.

Donald Trump, he thought of his mother during his first meeting with the queen. Not that he saw a resemblance between the two women. But he thought how proud his Scottish-born mother would have been to know he had tea with the British monarch at Windsor Castle.

“I was walking and I said [à Melania] : “Can you imagine my mother watching this scene?” Windsor. Windsor Castle,” he later told an interviewer.

In his memoirs, Ronald Reagan also recalled having had the impression of living a “fairy tale” in the company of the queen.

He was the first American president to be invited to spend the night at Windsor Castle, in 1982. And he welcomed the sovereign to her ranch in California, where the two indulged in one of their common passions, the ‘horse riding.

But it is George W. Bush who will have met the queen most often among American presidents: five times.

Even before becoming president, he will have had the chance to measure his humor, very Texan, with that of the queen, very british.

The scene takes place during a State dinner at the White House hosted by George Bush Sr. in 1991. His eldest son takes the opportunity to show Elizabeth II the new pair of cowboy boots on which he has inscribed “God save the Queen”.

“Are you the black sheep of the family? then asks the queen.

“I guess,” Dubya replies.

“All families have them,” she remarks.