Trump’s victory is what Meghan and Harry feared most – and may drive them out of America

In the middle of the night, as it became glaringly apparent that Donald Trump was storming to an eye-popping second term after a four-year hiatus, pundits scrambled to rewrite their briefs – and one voice stood out. With haunting clarity, historian Dominic Sandbrook called time on the truth that has been hiding in plain sight.

He explained that not only was much of blue-collar America not ready for a female commander-in-chief, but Kamala Harris’s unsuitability for the role of president ran far deeper than that.

According to Sandbrook’s thesis, too many Americans are “suspicious of someone from the coast, from the big cities, part of the liberal metropolitan elite”. In layman’s terms, if you were seeking a candidate with a chance of beating Trump (something the Democrats singularly failed to do), “you wouldn’t pick a mixed-race woman from California”.

Ooof! The truth hurts, especially when tinged with real-time misogyny and racism. Lots of Americans will be hurting today, not least that other Californian, mixed-race, big-city woman, Meghan (nee Markle), who, like Kamala Harris, personifies the liberal metropolitan elite. The actor-cum-duchess will have taken the Democrats’ thumping defeat personally, and with good reason.

Like so many Hollywood luminaries, Meghan made clear her disdain for Trump early on. In 2016, the then Suits actor told a US chat show that the prospect of a Trump presidency left her thinking: “I might just stay in Canada.”

Two months later, she went on a blind date with Prince Harry – and, a mere five months after her declaration of contempt for the presidential candidate, Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States of America. Presumably, his entry into the White House made her decision to marry a prince and move to Britain all the more straightforward.

As we well know, Hollywood doesn’t always guarantee happy-ever-after endings. When things did not go according to plan in Blighty, the pair dealt a Sussex drubbing to an intrusive press and the entrenched poe-faced Windsor brigade, not to mention the political elite.

The Harry and Meghan Netflix series pointed to the racist forces unleashed in the wake of Brexit. According to James Holt, then the executive director of the Archewell Foundation, the referendum result created “a perfect storm that gave credence to jingoism and nationalism”.

This apparently hostile atmosphere was one that the couple were keen to leave behind when they moved to California in 2020, with Meghan insisting: “People are very aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I went to the UK.”

Meanwhile, change was afoot in America. After a stormy Trump presidency, 2020 saw Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his right-hand woman, Kamala Harris, challenging for the White House. The latter has long had the duchess’s back, tweeting “Meghan, we are with you” when things started heating up prior to Megxit. The Sussexes were quick to reciprocate the favour, appearing in a video during the Biden-Harris presidential campaign, urging people to vote.

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Prince Harry insisted that Americans should “reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity”, with Meghan stating that the race was “the most important of our lifetime”. Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace swiftly moved to distance itself from the couple’s overt politicking, serving a tart reminder that Harry’s statements were “made in a personal capacity”.

It is telling that in the run-up to this election, the Sussexes have remained schtum. Kinsey Schofield, a Los Angeles-based royal podcast host, pointed out that the couple’s Montecito friends, such as Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry, desperately took to the stage campaigning for Kamala, but Meghan was notable by her absence.

Perhaps after years of vilification and mockery in both Britain and America, the duchess understood better than most that Harris would need more than a fair wind to take down Trump. No doubt they were also weary of Trump’s goading from the sidelines – he famously said of Prince Harry: “I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgiveable. He would be on his own if it was down to me.”

On the question of Harry’s US visa, Trump remarked that the Biden administration “have been too gracious to him after what he has done”. A ruling in the Duke of Sussex’s favour last month, which saw a judge insist that the prince’s application remain private despite the drug-taking admissions in his memoir, might be enough to secure Harry’s long-term place in America – but more broadly, US politics has just served the Sussex brand a giant yah boo sucks!

Trump’s return is another nail in the coffin for Meghan’s unfortunately named American Riviera Orchard business venture, while the couple’s much-promoted, super-inclusive US lifestyle looks a little threatened.

Small wonder that they appear to have been hedging their bets on Europe. The Sussexes’ rumoured purchase of a house on the Portuguese coast near Lisbon this summer speaks to a renewed quest to find their liberal nirvana. The purchase, reported to have cost over $4m (£3.08m), was alternatively touted in the press as a way of maintaining links with favourite royal cousin Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, who have a property in Melides near the luxury Costa Terra resort, and as a European alternative to returning to Britain.

Seen through an American lens, the decision to buy in Portugal potentially represents something even more permanent. Ever since Trump’s first term in the White House, it has been seen as a safe haven for American liberals wanting to flee a politically fraught USA. The number of US expats in Portugal has increased by 239 per cent since 2017, with many citing the appeal of a society less hidebound by racism, gun violence and toxic political divisions. With Trump’s re-election, the number is set to rise further, with Lisbon held up as reminiscent of San Francisco’s cityscape and the country as a whole lauded for its anglophile sensibilities.

So yes, Meghan and Harry may well decide to do more than dip their big toes in Portugal’s tempting Atlantic waters. And longer-term tenure conveniently close to Britain could see a thaw between the Sussexes and the country they turned their back on.

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After all, everything is relative, and nowadays the UK is governed by Labour’s Keir Starmer, a man married to “first lady” Victoria, who has a weakness for designer frocks; the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has a track record of being considerably more vocal on Trump than even the Sussexes.

Britain’s political mood music conveniently leans towards the couple’s declared cosmopolitan liberal agenda, at the same time as Harry is keen to see more of his ageing, ailing father. But, if increasingly frequent appearances by the Sussexes are a possible silver lining (for some) against the backdrop of Trump’s return to the White House, it should be served with a side of caution.

Starmer’s Britain needs to work with Trump’s America: the Ukrainian war, Nato security and that elusive trade deal are just a few of the critical issues that necessitate a close relationship, if not a special one.

And while our technocrat prime minister and bulldozer Trump are hardly natural political bedfellows (one a former director of public prosecutions, the other a convicted felon), we do hold a golden ticket.

Our royal family, always irresistible to America’s elected “kingship”, is particularly appealing to Trump – a devoted fan not just of the late Queen, but of the wider Windsor clan and their blend of pomp and palaces. However, any transatlantic cup of tea between the King and America’s unsavoury new president-elect must not overlap with a Portuguese pop-over from the Sussexes.

Tessa Dunlop is the author of ‘Elizabeth and Philip: The Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy’, Headline Press, 2022