President Donald Trump fired back at Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after the pair released a message in honor of National Voter Registration Day.
“I’m not a fan of hers,” Trump, 74, told reporters from the White House on Wednesday, September 23.
The president then directed his remarks toward Harry, 36, and his decision to marry the former Suits actress, 39.
“I would say this — and she has probably heard that — I wish a lot of luck to Harry because he’s going to need it,” Trump said.
Ahead of the president’s response, his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told the Daily Mail that Markle and Harry “made Britain great again by leaving, I hope they do the same for us.”
The former Celebrity Apprentice host’s comments came after the couple recorded a video urging U.S. citizens to vote in the upcoming 2020 presidential election in November.
The speech aired during an ABC special celebrating Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2020.
Although neither Markle nor her husband directly told viewers to vote Trump out of office, they pleaded with voters to make their voices heard this November.
“Every four years we are told the same thing: that this is the most important election of our lifetime. But this one is,” Markle said on Tuesday, September 22, while sitting beside her husband in the backyard of their new home in Montecito, California.
“When we vote, our values are put into action and our voices are heard. Your voice is a reminder that you matter, because you do and you deserve to be heard.”
The former military pilot cannot vote in the election as he is a British citizen, but he echoed his American wife’s sentiments, as Trump faces off against former vice president Joe Biden.
“When the bad outweighs the good, for many, whether we realize it or not, it erodes our ability to have compassion and our ability to put ourself in someone else’s shoes,” Harry said. “Because when one person buys into negativity online, the effects are felt exponentially. It’s time to not only reflect, but act.”
The prince has never voted in the U.K. (members of the royal family are expected to stay politically neutral) either, but he reminded Americans to always reject “hate speech, misinformation and online negativity.”
Markle, who shares 16-month-old son, Archie, with Harry, has been vocal about a woman’s right to vote in the U.S. and casting one’s ballot ahead of the impending election.
“We all know what’s at stake this year,” she said in August during a virtual event for the When All Women Vote campaign.
“The fight is worth fighting, and we all have to be out there mobilizing. … At this juncture, if we aren’t part of the solution, we’re part of the problem.
If you’re complacent, you’re complicit. We can make the difference in this election. And we will make the difference in this election.”
The same month, Markle sat down with feminist and activist Gloria Steinem for a candid conversation about making your vote count.
“People forget how hard women like you and so many others before you fought for us to just be where we are right now,” the Duchess of Sussex explained at the time.
Steinem, 86, replied back, saying, the voting booth is the “only place we’re all equal.”
Markle and Harry announced in January that they were stepping down as senior members of the royal family.
They moved to Markle’s native California in March with their son after initially staying in Canada.
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