The Duke of Sussex could face consequences if he lied about taking drugs on his US visa application, former American president Donald Trump has said.
In a preview of an interview between Trump and GB News presenter Nigel Farage, the Republican party’s presumptive nominee for the 2024 US presidential election said Harry should not receive preferential treatment.
Asked if Harry should have “special privileges” if he is found to have lied in his application, Trump said: “No. We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”
However, Trump refused to be drawn on whether Harry could be forced to leave the US, where he currently lives with his wife and children.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said.
“You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.”
It comes after Harry’s references to taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms in his memoir Spare prompted a conservative Washington DC think tank to question why he was allowed into the US in 2020.
The Heritage Foundation brought the lawsuit against the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) after a Freedom of Information Act request was rejected – claiming it was of “immense public interest”.
The lawsuit argues that US law “generally renders such a person inadmissible for entry” to the country.
In a hearing last November, lawyers from the DHS responded that Harry’s visa application answers regarding past drug use should not be disclosed because it is “private personal information”.
“Much like health, financial, or employment information, a person’s immigration information is private personal information,” they said.
“If the court accepts Plaintiffs’ arguments, the Government would need to reveal confidential immigration information about Prince Harry, a result the court should not adopt.”
Trump’s 30-minute interview with Farage will be broadcast on GB News at 7pm on Tuesday.
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