How Prince Harry is echoing Trump

It was always unlikely that Prince Harry was going to take his latest and perhaps most humiliating legal defeat with calmness and equanimity, and so it proved swiftly afterwards. Not only did he give a lengthy interview to the BBC in which he alternated between anger and blame and claiming that it was his intention to reconcile with his family, and specifically his father – William may be a step too far – but he also released an emotive and angry press statement in which he talked about how the court ruling had uncovered “shocking truths.” He appeared to suggest that there has been a conspiracy against him; a conspiracy led by the same people, the statement suggests, “that preyed upon my mother, that openly campaigned for the removal of our security, and that continue to incite hatred towards me, my wife and even our children, while at the same time protecting the very power that they should be holding accountable.”

Although the Duke of Sussex does not name The Spectator or any other magazine or current affairs title in his furious declaration, it seems clear that he may well have in mind an amorphous blob of well-connected, anonymous figures who presumably may include royal courtiers, the media, both the Conservative and Labour governments and, for all we know, Lord Lucan and Shergar as well. It is also clear that the refusal to allow his appeal (something predicted, uncannily but wholly accurately, by Elon Musk’s Grok function on X) was also anticipated in advance, hence the BBC interview and now this heartfelt pronouncement. 

Harry has suggested that he will appeal to the Home Secretary now; a course of action that is unlikely to result in success, given that he has been trying to sue the British government for years, but nonetheless he has to be allowed a go. Over the course of both his statement and interview, he reiterated one of his favorite topics, namely that he is a rational, sensible figure who has been forced into an impossible situation through the malicious actions of others. The statement itself is a curious mixture of those who have wronged him and his family (“I’ve also learned the names of all those involved, many of whom retired immediately after playing their part”) and presumably Meghan-influenced Californian vibes (“Life is precious and I understand the fragility of it”). That there was ever any possibility that he would accept the ruling with good grace and abide by it was never likely, but now it seems entirely impossible. 

There are strong words throughout. At one point, he calls the lack of a risk assessment for his and his family’s safety post-2019 (and, lest we forget, a spontaneous and unprompted decision to remove themselves from the royal family itself the following year) “not only a deviation from standard practice [but] a dereliction of duty.” There is talk of “social and tabloid media frenzy,” but also the claim that “No matter where we may agree or disagree, I have never wished harm on anyone.”

Buckingham Palace, meanwhile, have issued a brief, weary statement that “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.” It is hard not to think of the old line about insanity being to do the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. 

That Harry regards himself as a maverick in search of justice is made explicit by his comments that “the sad truth [is that] my hands are tied in seeking legal recourse against the government.” Oddly, in his flailing, furious attacks on these establishment figures who have sought to frustrate and belittle him at every move, despite his position at the heart of the British royal family since birth, the duke resembles one of his many nemeses, in the form of none other than Donald Trump. Both men have talked passionately, if not always persuasively, about the shadowy forces that have frustrated their popular crusade for truth and justice, but at least the 47th president managed to convince millions of people in the process to vote for him. It remains unclear whether Harry, who is never likely to let this matter drop, will have similar success. Perhaps, should he fail, he might be best advised to lower his sights and aim for a rather more attainable goal: Make Montecito Great Again.