During her reign of over 70 years, the late Queen Elizabeth II met with 13 US presidents from Harry Truman to Joe Biden.
Queen Elizabeth had a unique relationship with each president, providing an understanding of the long-standing alliance between Great Britain and the United States.
The late Queen was the first royal to fly across the Atlantic while she was Princess Elizabeth to meet with President Truman.
When she landed on October 31, 1952, Truman exclaimed: “When I was a little boy I read about a fairy princess- and there she is.”
Although the Queen never admitted it, one president does stand out as a favourite of the late monarch.
In 1957, the Queen and President Eisenhower began what would be the beginning of a strong relationship.
The Queen flew to the US to help repair US-UK relations after the Suez crisis where she attended her first American football game and iconicly asked: “How can they hit each other that hard without injury?”
During her meeting with Donald Trump, the US president didn’t shy away from asking the Queen who her favourite president was.
Trump asked: “Who was your favourite president? Was it Ronald Reagan?”
The Queen answered, as diplomatic as ever: “No, no, everybody. I liked them all.”
However, the Queen’s actions suggest that President Eisenhower played a special role in Elizabeth’s life.
Eisenhower was the only president that the Queen ever invited to stay at her beloved home in Balmoral, the only president who had a relationship with Elizabeth’s parents and the only one who put the monarch up in the White House private quarters.
While Eisenhower visited the Queen in Scotland with his wife, Mamie, he fell in love with the Queen’s drop scones.
This led to Elizabeth sending him the recipe accompanied by a personal letter in 1960.
At the end of her letter, the Queen showed her admiration for the president stating: “We remember with such pleasure your visit to Balmoral, and I hope the photograph will be a reminder of the very happy day you spent with us.”
Two other presidents also stand out during the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth: Reagan shared her love of horses and Obama made a special visit to the monarch for her 90th birthday.
Obama also met with the Queen’s grandsons, William and Harry several times.
The only president that the Queen did not meet during her reign was Lyndon B Johnson, but neither the palace nor the White House explained a reason for this.
During her reign throughout the 1960s, the Queen also met with John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon and in the 70s Elizabeth met with Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
The Queen also met with Ronald Reagan multiple times; he was the first president to stay the night at Windsor Castle.
In the final period of her reign, the Queen hosted George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and lastly, Joe Biden.
