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Man who won £110k by backing Trump meets US president

The Republican candidate’s victory last November surprised many who had tipped Hillary Clinton to win.

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Donald Trump and First Lady Melania board Air Force One (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

A hotelier who scooped more than £100,000 by backing Donald Trump to win the US election has met the president and his wife.

John Mappin, owner of the Camelot Castle Hotel in Tintagel, Cornwall, met Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at a Republican party fundraising event in Washington.

Mr Mappin, 51, won £110,767 after placing 33 bets with William Hill on the billionaire businessman beating Hillary Clinton.

He attended the fundraising event on June 28 at the Trump International Hotel and was ushered to a private room to meet the president and first lady before dinner.

Donald Trump at his Turnberry resort (Andrew Milligan/PA)
Donald Trump at his Turnberry resort (Andrew Milligan/PA)

“I was honoured and privileged to be invited into a private room for a reception with the president and first lady,” Mr Mappin said.

“I was introduced to him as the fellow who had backed him. He had with him one of the newspaper articles that reported the bet.

“He turned to his wife and said: ‘This is fantastic, this guy has made a lot of money backing me’.

“I replied: ‘Well sir, Mr President, when you back a winner you win’.”

No photographs were taken of the private meeting.

Mr Mappin, who is a member of the family behind Bond Street jewellers Mappin and Webb, said Mr Trump and his wife seemed “completely delighted” to meet him.

“It was a brief meeting but it was long enough to get a measure of him as a person,” he added.

“Despite what everybody else has said about this fellow, he is a wonderful person.

“He loves his country. He loves the people of America. He has been completely misjudged.”

Mr Mappin hopes Mr Trump will come to visit him in Cornwall, where he lives with his wife Irina and their young son Caspian.

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