Media mogul Rupert Murdoch attended the lavish state banquet for Donald Trump at Windsor Castle, despite being sued by the US president earlier this year. Mr Trump filed a lawsuit in July against The Wall Street Journal and Mr Murdoch following a report linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The article referred to a letter of a sexually suggestive nature that allegedly bore Mr Trump’s name.
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Mr Murdoch, 94, has also faced scrutiny in Britain over the conduct of his newspapers. Earlier this year, the Duke of Sussex accepted an “unequivocal apology” from News Group Newspapers (NGN) for unlawful activity by private investigators working for The Sun, while the Prince of Wales previously reached a settlement with NGN over phone hacking claims in 2020. At the banquet, Mr Murdoch was seated between Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and his wife Elena Murdoch, positioned further down the table from the King and senior royals.
The royal family’s presence at the event reflected the reduced number of working royals, with only eight attending compared with 16 during Mr Trump’s last state visit in 2019. King Charles was seated between the president and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while the Princess of Wales was on Mr Trump’s other side. The Queen, positioned opposite, sat between First Lady Melania Trump and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with the Prince of Wales nearby. Absent were figures such as the Duke of York, no longer carrying out royal duties due to his links with Epstein.
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The guest list also extended beyond politics and royalty. From the sporting world, Sir Nick Faldo and English golfer Charley Hull were present, alongside figures from the game’s governing body The R&A. Leading names from technology included Sam Altman of OpenAI, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, reflecting the significance of a new UK-US technology deal. Politicians attending ranged from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy to Scottish First Minister John Swinney. Meanwhile, outside the grandeur of Windsor, thousands of demonstrators in London protested against Mr Trump’s second state visit, with the Metropolitan Police closely monitoring the rallies.
