How stupid is Trump?

Liz Truss leaves stage over ‘I crashed the economy’ lettuce banner
Former PM said ‘that’s not funny’ when remote-controlled banner was unfurled behind her at event in Suffolk

Liz Truss left the stage abruptly at an event to promote her own book after campaigners unfurled a banner emblazoned with the phrase: “I crashed the economy” below a picture of a lettuce.

The former prime minister, who lasted 45 days in office, was in Suffolk discussing the US presidential election on Tuesday when the campaign group Led By Donkeys lowered its remote-controlled banner with a huge picture of a lettuce behind her.

Truss was sitting comfortably on stage in a bright green dress, expressing her support for Donald Trump before she was pranked. “I support Trump and I want him to win,” she said before the audience applauded her. “It’s what I was saying a bit about incumbents. I think the average American is not doing well …”

She added: “I think it was Bill Clinton’s adviser who said: ‘It’s the economy stupid.’ So I think he [Trump] will, he probably will win. I’ve got a load of Trump questions, by the way.”

Moments later, as the host told her he had “no idea where that’s come from”, some members of the audience laughed, before she muttered “that’s not funny”, ripping the microphone from her dress and walking off. She was applauded by some as she left.

The lettuce image and joke arose from the final days of Truss’s premiership, when the Daily Star launched a live stream of a lettuce to see whether Truss’s battle to survive in No 10 could last longer than a 60p iceberg lettuce from Tesco.

Truss was trying to promote her memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, when Led by Donkeys wrote on X: “We just dropped in on Liz Truss’s pro-Trump speaking tour with a remote-controlled lettuce banner. She didn’t find it funny.”

Truss has become vocal on US politics, last month addressing Republican supporters to learn lessons from her brief time in No 10. She insisted: “I’ve learned how powerful the unelected bureaucracy is. You have to win in November … you have to dismantle the leftist state … they are devious, they are ruthless and they are out to get you.”

The former prime minister has previously criticised the Daily Star’s lettuce joke, insisting it was not “particularly funny”, noting in June: “I just think it’s puerile.”

She went on to criticise the British media, claiming it was “known throughout the world for being particularly vociferous” and it is not “particularly deferential to politicians”.

The banner stunt came shortly after Truss voiced her support for Elon Musk, who has claimed the UK has a two-tier policing system. She said on X: “I am appalled by the attacks on free speech in Britain and Europe. We can’t be truly free without free speech. Good for Elon Musk and X for standing up to these bullies.” Musk responded, thanking her for support.

More shade

Jeremy London 🇺🇸 🦅 on X: "“When you’re a star, they just let you do it…” https://t.co/HkkUOimlLM" / X

The late Queen Elizabeth thought Donald Trump was “very rude” and “particularly disliked” one of his habits, according to claims from a new book.

Craig Brown’s A Voyage Around The Queen,which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, suggests the late monarch was irked by the then-US president’s tendency to look over her shoulder while in conversation.

Reportedly, the Queen thought it seemed as though he was “in search of others more interesting”.

The sovereign, who died in September 2022, hosted Trump during two separate US visits to the UK.

Like all members of the Royal Family, the Queen was expected to remain apolitical at all times and act as the government’s most effective form of “soft diplomacy”.

But it seems just “weeks after” one of the former president’s UK trips, she supposedly “confided in one lunch guest” about what she really thought of Trump.

Buckingham Palace has not commented on the claim, as it is custom for the royals not to remark on biographies.

The reports will come as a blow to Trump who is currently campaigning to be re-elected to the White House.

He has regularly spoken of his allegedly strong bond with the late monarch, even telling Fox News that they had a “great relationship”.

Speaking in 2019, he said: “I think I can say I really got to know her because I sat with her many times and we had automatic chemistry, you understand that feeling, it’s a good feeling.”

He claimed, “we had a period where we were talking solid, straight, I didn’t even know who the other people at the table were, never spoke to them,” and even added “there are those that say they have never seen the Queen have a better time, a more animated time.”

After protesters campaigned against his 2018 trip – including with a Trump “baby blimp” – the president’s expected state visit was downgraded to a working visit, meaning he had little of the usual pomp and ceremony.

Trump reportedly broke royal protocol repeatedly during that meeting by walking in front of the Queen and keeping her waiting for 10 minutes.

But he was allowed a state UK visit the following year – complete with state banquet – and Buckingham Palace said he had been a “model” guest.