Just when President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for King Charles III, a bombshell claim dropped: the two leaders may actually be family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to new research highlighted by the Daily Mail, Trump and the British monarch share a distant bloodline \u2014 tracing back centuries to a Scottish nobleman, the 3rd Earl of Lennox. The finding makes the U.S. president and the king \u201c15th cousins,\u201d a revelation that adds an unexpected twist to the royals\u2019 high-profile visit to Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The timing couldn\u2019t be more striking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles and Queen Camilla are in the U.S. for a four-day state visit, as tensions simmer across the Atlantic over foreign policy disagreements \u2014 including the ongoing Iran conflict and clashes between Trump and U.K. leadership. Now, a shared ancestry is suddenly part of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Royal author Robert Hardman, who uncovered the connection, says the president\u2019s admiration for the king could run even deeper than previously thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know that the avowedly royalist President Trump already regards the King as \u2018a great guy\u2019 and \u2018a fighter\u2019 – he told me so himself recently – but his affection for the monarch and the Royal Family may now become even more pronounced when he learns that he and the King share descent from the same Scottish nobleman,\u201d Hardman wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The research traces both men back to the 3rd Earl of Lennox \u2014 a great-grandson of King James II of Scotland \u2014 linking Trump and Charles through a sprawling, centuries-old family tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDetailed research on behalf of the Daily Mail has shown they have a common ancestor in the form of the 3rd Earl of Lennox\u2026 which means that Donald Trump and Charles III are 15th cousins,\u201d Hardman added. \u201cTheir shared forebear met an unfortunate end, however.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s putting it mildly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lennox\u2019s story reads like a medieval thriller. He was caught up in a brutal power struggle over control of a young Scottish king and ultimately met a violent fate after being captured by a rival known as the \u201cBastard of Arran.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n