Overview

• A clip from the June 25 NATO summit in The Hague showed Queen Maxima appearing to mirror President Trump’s mouth movements during a photo with King Willem-Alexander.
• The video went viral two days later, with figures like CNN editor Vani Mehrotra suggesting the queen was ridiculing the US president.
• On July 1, Queen Maxima clarified to Dutch outlet AD that she was actually saying "thank you" to someone off-camera who had helped her.
• She described meeting President Trump as a pleasant experience and said her unscripted reaction had been misinterpreted by viewers.
• The incident underscores the challenge of managing diplomatic protocol and narrative control when live moments are amplified on social media.