Donald Trump sees no problem with Princess Kate Middleton editing a Mother’s Day portrait of herself and her children.
“That shouldn’t be a big deal because everybody doctors. You look at these movie actors and you see a movie actor and you meet him, and you say, ‘Is that the same person in the picture?’” Trump, 77, said during a Tuesday, March 19, interview with the U.K.’s GB News. “And I looked at that actually, and it was a very minor doctoring. I don’t understand why there could be such a howl over that.”
The former president continued: “It’s a rough period that, you know, they’re really — they went after her.”
The controversy began earlier this month when multiple news outlets received a notice to remove a photo of Kate, 42, posing with Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, as it appeared to have been “manipulated” by the source.
Kate subsequently addressed the drama via X.
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” her March 11 statement began. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.”
The portrait remains on Kate and Prince William’s official Instagram page, although Instagram has placed a warning message alongside the bottom of the photo.
“Altered/photo video,” the warning reads, adding that “independent fact-checkers say the photo or image has been edited in a way that could mislead people, but not because it was shown out of context.”
The editing fail fueled conspiracy theories about Kate’s health and whereabouts as she recovers from abdominal surgery. Kensington Palace announced in January that the Princess of Wales had undergone a “planned” abdominal procedure and would not return to public duties until after Easter. Kate was seen smiling during an outing with William, 41, on Sunday, March 17.
However, the sighting was not enough to convince some people that all is well with Kate and William.
“That ain’t Kate …,” Andy Cohen wrote via X on Monday, March 18, in response to footage from Kate and William’s trip to the Windsor Farm Shop.
While Trump isn’t fazed by Kate dabbling in photo editing, he did say during his GB News appearance that “appropriate action” will have to be taken if Prince Harry lied about his history of drug use when applying for a U.S. Visa. (The Heritage Foundation sued the Department of Homeland Security for access to Harry’s immigration records last year after the prince admitted to past drug use in his memoir, Spare.)
When GB News host Nigel Farage asked Trump whether the consequences for Harry, 39, could include deportation from the United States, Trump replied, “Oh, I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me.”
