King Charles visits the US amid tense relations with President Trump
USA TODAY Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page takes a deep dive into the U.S.-British relationship and what to expect from King Charles III’s visit to Washington.
WASHINGTON – Charles III’s mother, Elizabeth II, knew how to navigate sticky situations.
On the night of July 7, 1976, the Queen toasted the former British colony’s 200th birthday, standing alongside President Gerald Ford under a large tent above the White House Rose Garden and politely raising a glass to America and what America had become since declaring independence from Britain.
“At the end of the day, no one can say that what happened on July 4, 1776 was not a bilateral event between us,” she said.
(please stop laughing. )
Fifty years later, another British monarch, King Charles, will return to these shores with his wife Queen Camilla to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. But unlike his mother’s visit, which took place during a period of relative peace following transatlantic tensions over the Vietnam War, Charles’ state visit comes amid the deepest rift between the White House and the British government in decades.
President Donald Trump has quarreled, insulted and even mocked Prime Minister Keir Starmer over tariffs, the backbone of Trump’s economic policy. The future of the NATO alliance (President Trump questions its value). Iran war (Britain wants no part in it). freedom of speech (the White House claims Britain censors conservative views); Greenland (President Trump wants it). and Canada (President Trump has said Canada should become the 51st state).
“We’re not dealing with Winston Churchill,” President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on March 3, referring to Starmer.
Against this backdrop, Prince Charles will arrive in Washington on April 27th in royal pomp and pomp for a four-day state visit that will include a state dinner at the White House, an unusual address to a joint session of the House and Senate, and a ceremonial stop at the 9/11 terrorist attack memorial in New York.
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For Britain, Charles’ visit offers an opportunity to reset the “special relationship” that has bound Britain to the United States through two world wars and decades of other perils. For Charles, the trip will be an opportunity to prove to the world that he has the same diplomatic skills as his mother.
Asked if the king’s visit could repair relations with the United States, Trump told the BBC: “Absolutely. He’s great. He’s a great guy.”
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But how do you charm a leader like Trump, who often speaks to foreign dignitaries like the outspoken New Yorker he is, rather than in the formal language of diplomatic communication?
“That’s actually the big question: How is (Prime Minister Charles) going to approach this?” said Max Bergman, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit policy research group in Washington.
Royal watchers say Prince Charles is up to the task. In some ways, he’s better at this kind of environment than his mother, who could come across as formal and formal, said Andrew Rowney, a British historian who has written extensively about the royal family.
“He’s just as good, if not better, than his mother,” Rowney said. “He’s much more outgoing in many ways. He’s more charming. He learned all the tricks by watching his mother’s back. He’ll find a way to charm Trump.”
Charles spent far more time preparing to become monarch than his mother, who was only 27 years old when she ascended the throne upon her father’s death. After his mother’s death, Charles finally became king at the age of 73, meaning he spent 70 years as a royal apprentice before finally taking up the highest office.
Matt Beech, director of the Center for British Politics at Hull University, said Prince Charles was likely to stress in Washington the shared linguistic ties and shared history that have been the basis of the long friendship between the United States and Britain.
The United States was “born out of British culture, traditions and customs,” he said. “The language in which our Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence is the language of the United States to this day.”
If these commonalities are not enough to mend recent rifts between the two countries, Charles has another trump card. The US president seems obsessed with the British royal family.
“They gave us an amazing, five-star dinner. It was truly amazing,” President Trump enthused Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA TODAY and author of the recently published book “Queens and Presidents,” about his state dinner at Buckingham Palace in 2019.
Trump, who said one of his earliest memories was watching Queen Elizabeth’s coronation live on TV with his Scottish-born mother, told Page that he and Elizabeth had “great chemistry.”
“I sat with her for hours. Camila was on my right, she was on my left, and we talked for a long time,” he said.
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President Trump and Prince Charles have met numerous times, most recently last September when the king hosted the president for his second state dinner at Windsor Castle. Mr. Trump speaks highly of Mr. Charles, but it is less clear what Mr. Charles thinks of Mr. Trump. Charles reportedly disagrees with some of President Trump’s policies, particularly his stance on climate change, but has not publicly voiced his opposition.
“In public, they seem to get along reasonably well,” Beach said. “We don’t know about private things, but in public they do, and that’s important.”
“Anguishing relationship”
Charles is the newest head of the royal family, but he’s a different leader than his mother. His reign comes at a different time and with different challenges.
Bergman said relations between Washington and London have cooled in recent years, with the end of the Cold War and the United States placing less emphasis on Russia and Europe. Britain’s strategic importance to the United States was further undermined by Brexit, which began with the approval of a referendum to leave the European Union in 2016 and formal withdrawal four years later.
U.S. leaders have long looked to Britain as an important pro-American voice in Europe. But with Britain no longer a member of the EU, “the geopolitical reality is that the UK is much less important to the United States,” Bergman said.
With Mr. Trump returning to power last year and tensions with Mr. Starmer escalating, “we now have this fractious relationship where the UK is trying to hold things together and the US is also trying to hold things together. Sometimes that works out, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Bergman said. “But the relationship is no longer as close as it once was. We don’t go to them for advice, and they don’t come to us.”
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Starmer’s domestic problems
Mr Starmer may be hoping that Mr Trump’s good will towards the king will help bring him back into the presidential favor. But that won’t help the Prime Minister domestically. There are growing calls for the prime minister to resign over allegations that he deliberately misled MPs over the appointment of Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the US.
At the time Starmer gave him Britain’s most high-profile overseas diplomatic job, Mandelson was aware of his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019. Mr. Epstein had interactions with several powerful and prominent figures in business and politics, including Mr. Trump and the king’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew). Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of her royal title last year over her relationship with Epstein.
Additionally, Starmer’s government is in deep trouble with voters ahead of May’s local elections, as it faces slowing economic growth, persistently high inflation, unstable public services and a national debate over immigration led by Trump ally Nigel Farage’s Reform Britain party.
“Will[Starmer]stay as leader?” Bergman said. “I think there are some questions about how Charles approaches this.”
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Diplomacy and deep ties
Although Prince Charles is the British head of state as King, he is not the head of government. This characteristic makes the royal family a key asset in diplomacy and dealing with foreign leaders like Trump.
Richard Whitman, a British professor of politics and international relations at the University of Kent, said Charles’ visit was about more than just resolving a difficult situation with one government.
This “reminds us that the bond is a little deeper than politicians who come and go,” Whitman said.
So Charles, like his mother half a century ago, will join the US president next week to raise a glass to the former British colony celebrating its 250th anniversary of independence.th Their birthday and the day they became world leaders.
Wouldn’t that be a little uncomfortable for the British King?
Not at all, Whitman said. The British have made peace with their history.
“Obviously, we still think you made the wrong choice,” he joked. “But that’s your responsibility, not ours.”
Michael Collins writes about the intersection of politics and culture. He is a veteran reporter who has covered the White House and Congress. Follow him on X: @mcollinsNEWS
Contributing from London: Kim Hjelmgaard
