Relationships between Elizabeth II and America: One queen, many presidents

• In her interactions with the 14 US presidents who served during her reign
• Queen Elizabeth II developed her “special bond” with America
• The late monarch interacted with all of the male presidents during her 70 years in power

In her interactions with the 14 US presidents who served during her reign—Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, and others—Queen Elizabeth II developed her “special bond” with America.

The late monarch interacted with all of the male presidents during her 70 years in power, from Harry Truman to Joe Biden, with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson, who took over the Oval Office after John F. Kennedy was killed.

Also Read

Snoop Dogg pays final respects to Queen Elizabeth II

Snoop Dogg shared a video in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who passed...

In 1951, when she made her maiden trip to the country, the young princess waved to the audience from the rear seat of a convertible, with Harry Truman standing at her side.

Even though she had not yet become queen, Elizabeth exhibited the oratory gravitas of a future head of state when she told the former British colony: “Free men everywhere look towards the United States with affection and with hope.”

Following that journey, colour enlivened official pictures of her transatlantic journeys.

All US presidents received the same treatment from Elizabeth, whose reign coincided with the emergence of the US as a superpower: the measured air of familiarity and the studied distance that protocol demands.

State dinners at the White House and the time-honored custom of tea time at one of her numerous royal homes were just a few of the venues where those meetings took place.

At a state supper celebrating the anniversary of American independence in July 1976, she invited the Kennedys to Buckingham Palace for a magnificent dinner and danced with Gerald Ford while wearing a yellow dress and a sparkling tiara.

The queen quenched the media’s hunger for all things formal and opulent, but she also recognised the value of spontaneous, unscripted moments.

Reagan, a former Western actor, and she went horseback riding close to Windsor Castle in 1982. The following year, he paid it forward by serving tacos and guacamole to the monarch at his ranch in California.

Elizabeth was escorted by George H.W. Bush to a baseball game in Baltimore in 1991, where she met all the players and shook their hands. At a pre-game reception, the queen reportedly declined the opportunity to eat a hot dog but did sip a martini instead.

She shared her scone recipe with Eisenhower in a handwritten letter from 1960 that was saved at the National Archives after the retired general enjoyed the teatime favourite at Balmoral, the Scottish estate where she lived until her death on Thursday at the age of 96.

“I think the mixture needs a great deal of beating,” the queen explains, adding that the baker should not let the dough sit too long before cooking.

She also suggests using “golden syrup or treacle instead of only sugar,” noting “that can be very good, too.”

American officials have admitted in more recent years that they felt the ailing queen resembled a mother figure.

Also Read

Queen Elizabeth 1926 -2022: Her II’s life through picture

Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the phrase "London Bridge has...

“I don’t think she’d be insulted but she reminded me of my mother — the look of her and just the generosity,” Biden said after his June 2021 meeting with the queen.

The comment is particularly salient, given that when Biden was set to meet the queen for the first time, in 1982 in Britain when he was a young senator, his mother, a proud descendant of Irish immigrants, said: “Don’t you bow down to her.”

When Donald Trump and his wife Melania drank tea with Elizabeth II at Windsor in 2018, he told the Daily Mail that he was reminded of his own mother.

“My mother passed away a while ago, and she was a tremendous fan of the queen,” he said at the time.

Elizabeth made Obama, who is 15 years younger than Trump, think of his grandmother.

The meeting between the Obamas and the queen in 2009 at Buckingham Palace has endured in the public’s memory. Michelle briefly wrapped her arm around the monarch, and Elizabeth unexpectedly did the same.

“She meant a great deal to us,” the Obamas said in a statement following her death.

In messages released alongside their wives, all five surviving former US presidents—Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump—paid respect to Elizabeth II.

The same phrases again appeared in the comments: dignity, obligation, humour, and kindness.

Biden mandated that all American flags, including the one flying over the White House, which British forces set on fire in 1814, be lowered to half-staff until the queen’s funeral.

In a lengthy ode, the Democratic leader captured the sentiment felt throughout the country—a nation founded less than 250 years ago—during the nearly century-long reign of the queen.

“Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era,” he said.