King Charles III and Queen Camilla have started their historic State Visit to the United States this week – but now we’ve uncovered a surprising connection between Donald Trump and the monarch.
The president and King Charles could share an ancestor from way back in history, which makes them 15th cousins once removed, GB News reports. Politicians Donald Trump and Charles share a connection to the third Earl of Lennox. Both Donald Trump’s family and King Charles’s family line have been traced back to this Scottish aristocrat.
Detailed research on behalf of the Daily Mail has shown they have a common ancestor in the form of the 3rd Earl of Lennox, a great-grandson of King James II of Scotland, which means that Donald Trump and Charles III are 15th cousins. Their shared forebear met an unfortunate end,… pic.twitter.com/gBvESZYQMo
— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) April 28, 2026
The third Earl of Lennox was born a great-grandson of James II of Scotland, who died in 1460. However the family connection goes way back. Lord Lennox’s daughter Lady Helen was the mother of the 12th Earl of Sutherland who married Lady Jane Mackay. Her father was George Mackay, 11th Laird of Strathnaver from the Clan Mackay.
Donald Trump has long expressed admiration for King Charles III, even telling royal biographer Robert Hardman that he considers him a “great guy.” But that respect could soon take on a more personal dimension following newly uncovered family history.
Hardman—author of Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story—revealed that Charles and Donald Trump “share descent from the same Scottish nobleman,” the 3rd Earl of Lennox, making them “15th cousins.”
Writing in the Daily Mail, Hardman noted: “We know that the avowedly royalist President Trump already regards the King as ‘a great guy’ and ‘a fighter’ – 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.”
Donald Trump's gleeful reaction to learning he's a cousin of King Charles revealed – @nieto_phillip reports ➡️ https://t.co/XOHOzXg94t 🔗 pic.twitter.com/WzX0kybzyk
— Daily Mail US (@Daily_MailUS) April 28, 2026
Their son Donald Mackay would eventually be made the 1st Lord Reay and was known to be an admirer and supporter of Charles I during the Civil War. Over time, the lineage passed through the Mackays before being passed down the MacDonald family and then to the MacLeods. The family eventually lead to Mary Anne MacLeod of Lewis who moved to America in 1930.
She married Fred Trump, who was a property developer. Donald Trump was born in 1946, the fourth child of the couple. According to Hardman, Lord Lennox was entangled in a “vicious” power struggle centered on control of the young James V of Scotland, eventually suffering defeat at the 1526 Battle of Linlithgow Bridge.
His lineage would later intersect with some of the most pivotal figures in British royal history. Lennox’s son went on to father Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Their son would later ascend the throne as James I of England, marking a key moment where ties to the House of Windsor begin to emerge.
However, Lennox’s family tree extended far beyond that royal branch. Among his children was Lady Helen, who married the 11th Earl of Sutherland. Their son, the 12th Earl, later had a daughter, Lady Jane, who married the chief of the Highland Clan Mackay. Their son, Donald Mackay, carried the line forward.
Over generations, the ancestry continued through both the Mackay and MacLeod families before eventually leading to Mary Anne MacLeod. In 1930, she emigrated to the United States in search of a new life and later married real estate developer Fred Trump.
The couple would go on to have five children, including Donald Trump—creating an unexpected genealogical link between the modern US president and the British monarch that stretches back more than 500 years.
