This week, President Donald Trump is living out his “What a Girl Wants” fantasy and visiting the UK.
He’s attended various events, the most glamorous of which — and likely his most anticipated — was a state dinner at Windsor Castle that included some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, as well as a couple of seemingly random athletes.
While we’ll have to wait for the 2035 season of “The Crown” to know what really went down over cognac and watercress panna cotta, the seating chart left much to the imagination. Business Insider’s Katie Notopoulos and Maddie Berg discuss.
Katie Notopoulos: Maddie, I’m obsessed with this big palace state dinner with Donald Trump. The guest list and seating arrangements are wild.
Maddie Berg: The Tiffany Trump-Tim Cook pairing? Melania between Camilla and William?
Katie: So, I suppose we should be clear here: We’re just two American idiots. We don’t fully know the context of all the UK bigwigs who were there, especially some of the lesser-known ones. I mean, personally, I enjoy the pomp of these big state dinner things. Royals are fun to watch! And I suspect Trump loves it, too.
Maddie: That makes two of us. As a fiend for fancy drama, I am drooling. Do we think Trump was happy with his seat? He was between King Charles and Princess Kate.
Katie: Oh, absolutely, I think he was happy! I think being next to Kate is far better than being next to Camilla, right? Kate’s a star! She’s the one everyone cares about! Trump understands celebrity.
Maddie: Who got dissed? Sam Altman? Sitting all the way at the end? I mean, a pro golfer was closer to the main event.
Katie: Absolutely! He was basically banished to Narnia, though he did get a good prime seat at the recent White House dinner with other tech CEOs.
Maddie: You win some, you lose some. Not to be obsessed with money, but let’s take a second and appreciate just how rich this table was. There was no Elon Musk or Larry Ellison, but you’ve still got hundreds of billions — maybe trillions? — in one room.
Katie: Who was the richest person there?
Maddie: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. He has an estimated net worth of about $150 billion and is currently ranked the 9th richest person in the world by Forbes. Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman is probably the next richest, and he’s an Anglophile. His recent renovations of a Hampshire estate have rubbed some locals the wrong way.
Katie: Let’s talk about Jensen Huang for a second because he was a notable absence at the White House dinner. Although I have to guess that it wasn’t a slight but just some sort of scheduling thing. He and Trump seem to be on good terms at the moment.
Maddie: Yes, and same with Huang and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Just Wednesday, Nvidia announced a major investment in the UK.
Katie: Jensen’s area of the table is a really funny mix of UK people and American business people. He’s between a British political science professor and Rene Haas of ARM Holdings. Bigwigs in their own worlds, but not exactly household names. And then he’s across from Ruth Porat, president of Alphabet. She’s sandwiched between some UK government people, including the police commissioner.
Maddie: I kind of think Jensen and a professor would be fun to eavesdrop on — they seem like two intellectuals? Probably no bragging about who has a bigger estate or talk of the Royal Ascot at that end of the table.
Katie: Jensen is famously witty and charming. I bet he’s a great dinner party guest to put in an area that would otherwise be a dead zone. For example, when you know that a bunch of people would have trouble with conversation, you drop in the most chatty person in the mix.
Maddie: As Larry David would say, a great middler.
Katie: I know we’re both dying to talk about one particular guest: Tiffany Trump. She was paired with Apple CEO Tim Cook to walk into the dinner together, and her husband, Michael Boulos, walked in with Princess Kate.
Maddie: OK, so here’s what we know about Tiff: She spent the summer on an oil magnate’s yacht in the French Riviera, she’s named after THE Tiffany and Co., and she released a single as a teen called “Like a Bird.”
Katie: And here’s what we know about Tim Cook: He’s really good at playing nice with Trump. So I’m sure it went well! Let’s talk about tensions: Rupert Murdoch was there, and Trump is in the middle of suing Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal over its reporting on Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein birthday book.
Maddie: I was thinking that must have been one of the most awkward tête-à-têtes. Sure, they weren’t sitting next to each other, but they definitely made eye contact.
Are there any surprising guests? Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff wasn’t at the recent big White House tech summit.
Katie: Just this week, he announced Salesforce has a new division for defense/national security tech, which puts him a little more in these kinds of international diplomacy waters.
Maddie: The newest tech leader to enter the orbit.
Katie: Ok, Maddie, I have a last question: Who would you want to sit next to?
Maddie: I’m going to throw a curveball at ya: James Chalmers. He controls the royals’ money — his official title is “Keeper of the Privy Purse.” That’s something I’d die to know more about. Maybe after a couple of tequila shots (do they drink tequila there?). That would also put me across from the MI5 director — I would love to know if he was consulted on this season of “Slow Horses.”
Sam Altman’s husband, Oliver Mulherin, is a close second. I would love to know how they split parenting responsibilities. Our kids are the same age; maybe they have some luxe hand-me-downs.
Katie: I know this is incredibly basic of me, but I have to say Princess Kate. Sorry!!! As a boorish millennial American, I still just find her fascinating!!!
Maddie: One final business thought: I’m not sure the precedent, but using our business powers for overseas diplomacy is fascinating. It’s one thing to talk about domestic investment, but international? Trump’s really making them work for their supper.
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