This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . The next check for changes will be
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/18/who-sat-next-to-whom-at-trumps-windsor-banquet-and-what-does-it-tell-us
The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Previous version
1
Next version
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Who sat next to whom at Trump’s Windsor banquet – and what does it tell us? | Who sat next to whom at Trump’s Windsor banquet – and what does it tell us? |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| US president was next to Princess of Wales while Rupert Murdoch had the ear of Starmer’s chief of staff | US president was next to Princess of Wales while Rupert Murdoch had the ear of Starmer’s chief of staff |
| Buckingham Palace has disclosed a wealth of detail about the state banquet at Windsor Castle hosted by the king for Donald Trump – from the 139 candles to the 1,452 pieces of cutlery, all lovingly polished by hand – but all that anyone really wants to know about is the seating plan. | Buckingham Palace has disclosed a wealth of detail about the state banquet at Windsor Castle hosted by the king for Donald Trump – from the 139 candles to the 1,452 pieces of cutlery, all lovingly polished by hand – but all that anyone really wants to know about is the seating plan. |
| In Windsor Castle’s St George’s Hall, the 50 metre-long table runs the length of the room, offering a tantalising indication of a pecking order among the 160 guests. | In Windsor Castle’s St George’s Hall, the 50 metre-long table runs the length of the room, offering a tantalising indication of a pecking order among the 160 guests. |
| The arrangements were said to be the work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the royal household, and protocol has its place, but there is no doubt that Downing Street and the White House had a strong steer, adding to the intrigue around who was next to whom. | The arrangements were said to be the work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the royal household, and protocol has its place, but there is no doubt that Downing Street and the White House had a strong steer, adding to the intrigue around who was next to whom. |
| After a gruelling period of media attention, did Keir Starmer’s under-fire chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, want to pull the ear of Rupert Murdoch, who was placed by his side? Was it Princess Anne’s decision to sit within shouting distance of Rachel Reeves, who was on the other side of the US ambassador, Warren Stephens? The king’s sister is said to be upset with the chancellor over her changes to the inheritance laws in relation to farms. Or perhaps it was Reeves’s doing and she harbours a secret interest in equestrian sports? | |
| There was no need for an anxious look for a name card on entering the hall. The guests were asked to walk in two by two, giving them a strong steer as to their allocated places. They were serenaded by an orchestra on the balcony above as they did so, one of the compositions being You Can’t Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones. | There was no need for an anxious look for a name card on entering the hall. The guests were asked to walk in two by two, giving them a strong steer as to their allocated places. They were serenaded by an orchestra on the balcony above as they did so, one of the compositions being You Can’t Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones. |
| Donald Trump and the Princess of Wales | Donald Trump and the Princess of Wales |
| According to Chris Ruddy, the chief executive of the rightwing cable channel Newsmax Media, seated in the middle of the table, the US president has a wonderful relationship with the king, who was to his left, but he “did most of his talking last night with Kate”. That may have been a disappointment to Michael Boulos, the president’s son-in-law through his marriage to Tiffany Trump, who was on Kate’s other side. As chief executive of the conglomerate Scoa Nigeria, which works in automotive distribution, assembly and equipment sales, among other things, he no doubt had a host of fascinating anecdotes to share. | According to Chris Ruddy, the chief executive of the rightwing cable channel Newsmax Media, seated in the middle of the table, the US president has a wonderful relationship with the king, who was to his left, but he “did most of his talking last night with Kate”. That may have been a disappointment to Michael Boulos, the president’s son-in-law through his marriage to Tiffany Trump, who was on Kate’s other side. As chief executive of the conglomerate Scoa Nigeria, which works in automotive distribution, assembly and equipment sales, among other things, he no doubt had a host of fascinating anecdotes to share. |
| Rupert Murdoch and Morgan McSweeney | Rupert Murdoch and Morgan McSweeney |
| It was something of a surprise that Murdoch was invited to the banquet given he being sued by Trump for $10bn (£7.5bn) over the Wall Street Journal’s publication of a story that claimed he wrote a “bawdy” note to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his birthday. Murdoch’s press has had innumerable conflicts with the royal family too, with Murdoch’s News Corp newspapers apologising and paying out earlier this year to the king’s youngest son, Harry, for serial intrusion into his private life and that of his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales. Nevertheless, the 94-year-old was seated between his fifth wife, Elena, 67, and Starmer’s chief of staff, McSweeney, 48. McSweeney’s political judgment has been in question in recent weeks, in part due to the fall of his mentor, Peter Mandelson, who was sacked over revelations about his past correspondence with Epstein. Perhaps Murdoch and McSweeney, not natural bedfellows, were able to find common cause in their Epstein woes. | It was something of a surprise that Murdoch was invited to the banquet given he being sued by Trump for $10bn (£7.5bn) over the Wall Street Journal’s publication of a story that claimed he wrote a “bawdy” note to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his birthday. Murdoch’s press has had innumerable conflicts with the royal family too, with Murdoch’s News Corp newspapers apologising and paying out earlier this year to the king’s youngest son, Harry, for serial intrusion into his private life and that of his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales. Nevertheless, the 94-year-old was seated between his fifth wife, Elena, 67, and Starmer’s chief of staff, McSweeney, 48. McSweeney’s political judgment has been in question in recent weeks, in part due to the fall of his mentor, Peter Mandelson, who was sacked over revelations about his past correspondence with Epstein. Perhaps Murdoch and McSweeney, not natural bedfellows, were able to find common cause in their Epstein woes. |
| Keir Starmer and Stephen Schwarzman | Keir Starmer and Stephen Schwarzman |
| These are desperate times for the prime minister – and the Trump state visit contains all sorts of pitfalls – but the announcement of £150m in new US investment is something of a saving grace. Of the £150bn, £90bn was a commitment from the private equity firm Blackstone to invest in the UK over the next decade, and so the chief executive of the investment group, Stephen Schwarzman, had pride of place next to Keir Starmer. | |
| There was a risk in this, though. Schwarzman, one of the world’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of more than £30bn, has an estate in Wiltshire. In recent days, Southern Water told tanker companies to cease delivering water to Schwarzman’s 2,500-acre estate after local residents filmed vehicles going day and night to its grounds to fill up a lake at Conholt Park. Might he have brought this annoyance up with the man in the top seat? | |
| Kemi Badenoch and Sam Altman | |
| The Conservative leader has an Elon Musk problem. She has benefited from his social media campaign over the so-called grooming gangs in the UK, but the South African-born billionaire appears to be far more interested in Nigel Farage’s Reform, or even the former BNP member Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson. Sitting next to Kemi Badenoch was a man who is no stranger to Musk problems. Musk and Sam Altman were co-founders of OpenAI, but the two men fell out in spectacular style, leading to lawsuits, competing AI ventures and personally spiteful exchanges on social media. Maybe he wouldn’t be the best man for advice, after all. | |
| Sign up to First Edition | Sign up to First Edition |
| Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters | Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters |
| after newsletter promotion | after newsletter promotion |
| Queen Camilla and Scott Bessent | Queen Camilla and Scott Bessent |
| This one was surely the work of Camilla. The US treasury secretary’s friendship with the king and, particularly, the queen goes back three decades and he is regarded as something of a trusted confidant. Scott Bessent first met Charles in 1990 at the Charleston mansion of the American’s cousin, Richard Jenrette, the chair of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, during a royal visit to South Carolina. He became a generous donor to Charles’s charity the Prince’s Foundation, now the King’s Foundation, and attended two of the prince’s 50th birthday parties in 1998, at Hampton Court Palace and Highgrove in Gloucestershire. | |
| Significantly, he helped Camilla build a public profile before her marriage to the king. He was photographed taking Camilla and her son to dinner at the Ivy in central London in late 1998 as part of choreography devised by the palace PR spin chief, Mark Boland, to introduce her to the public. The following year she stayed at the home Bessent shared with his then partner Will Trinkle in East Hampton on Long Island, apparently impressing her hosts by bodysurfing in the Atlantic. Bessent then provided a helicopter to fly Camilla to New York City for a public part of her tour. | |
| Tim Cook and Tiffany Trump | Tim Cook and Tiffany Trump |
| Donald Trump’s fourth child, Tiffany Trump, was the only member of the wider family invited to the state banquet. The 31-year-old, who has had various careers, including an aborted effort to be a pop singer, has now settled into helping her father with his campaigning. She has 1.6 million followers on Instagram, who can enjoy glossy photographs of her glamorous existence with her husband. The positioning of Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, next to Tiffany Trump is surely a sign that he is back in the good books of the US president. | |
| Trump was said to be sore when Cook did not join his fellow tech chiefs in the Middle East last May for the president’s visit to the region. Trump has repeatedly had digs at Cook. In May he told the press he had a “little problem” with Cook, after reports that the company was planning to switch assembly of handsets for the US market from China to India. It is not immediately obvious what Tiffany Trump and Cook might have talked about over the Hampshire watercress panna cotta and Norfolk chicken ballotine. Cook’s superpower as a CEO is said to be that he is boring and predictable. But perhaps for these two, it was enough just to be there. |
Previous version
1
Next version