Queen Elizabeth II making a joke that a helicopter passing overhead “sounds like President Trump” has gone viral on TikTok.
The late monarch, who died in September 2022, gave an interview to iconic nature filmmaker David Attenborough at Buckingham Palace, in June 2017.
As the pair tried to talk in a private garden, a helicopter passed overhead, seemingly irritating Elizabeth.
“Why do they always go round and round when you want to talk?” she said. And in typically dry fashion she added: “Sounds like President Trump…or President Obama.”
Why It Matters
A clip of the moment has newly gone viral on TikTok, but notably cut off the joke before the reference to Obama.
The post was liked 27.7K times and viewed 140,000 times having been posted with the message: “And he rlly thought he was her favorite president💀.”
What To Know
Trump was president at the time the comment was made but had not yet undergone his state visit to Britain, so it is unlikely Elizabeth was basing her quip on an experience of meeting him in person.
The clip comes from 2018 ITV documentary The Queen’s Green Planet and shows Elizabeth and Attenborough walking the private gardens at Buckingham Palace discussing climate change, among other topics.
And the filmmaker states it was filmed in June: “On a balmy afternoon in June, the queen is showing me around her private gardens at Buckingham Palace.”
Trump’s first meeting with the queen as president was on July 13, 2018, three months after the documentary was broadcast, and he returned for a formal state visit in 2019.
The Queen’s Green Planet was promoting a project encouraging Commonwealth nations to dedicate a forest in honor of Elizabeth.
The Trump reference was not the only joke in the documentary, as Attenborough also pointed out a sun dial that was unhelpfully positioned in the shade.
“Isn’t it good, yes…” the queen said before turning to an aide off camera. “Had we thought of that? That it was planted in the shade? It wasn’t in the shade originally, I’m sure. Maybe we could move it.”
ITV News reported at the time that the Buckingham Palace head gardener confirmed it was indeed moved.
Attenborough also at one stage suggested there could be “all kinds of different trees growing here in another 50 years” due to climate change.
Keenly aware of her own mortality, Elizabeth replied: “It might easily be, yes. I won’t be here though.”
