A bulk of the table – nearly two dozen seats – were taken up by Trump’s camp, including his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and a slew of senior members of his administration covering everything from foreign policy to AI.
He was of course joined by his wife, Melania Trump, whose nameplate simply read “Mrs Trump”. She was seated across from her husband, in between Queen Camilla and the Prince of Wales, William, while Catherine, the Princess of Wales, was next to President Trump.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio scored a prime spot next to the King, with Lady Victoria Starmer, not her husband, on his other side.
Tiffany Trump, fourth child of the president, was the only one of Trump’s children to attend the state banquet this time. On the last state visit in 2019, she was one of four children to come. She has been less involved in the Trump administrations than her older siblings, but some like Ivanka Trump have taken a step back in his second term.
Tiffany’s husband Michael Boulos also attended. He is no stranger to London, having studied in the city. He does not hold a role in the Trump administration, but the president picked his father Massad Boulos as a key advisor, and the younger Boulos was placed in a prominent seat beside the Princess of Wales.
Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul turned Trump’s special envoy who is playing a pivotal role in foreign policy on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, likely found lots to discuss with his neighbour Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s National Security Adviser.
Susan Wiles, White House Chief of Staff, was Trump’s campaign manager in the 2024 election. He called her the “ice maiden” who operates mostly “in the back”, but she is known as one of the most feared political operatives in the US. She was seated next to someone with another important but behind-the-scenes role – private secretary to the King, Sir Clive Alderton.
Another apt pairing was David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto tsar, next to Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of Google’s DeepMind, a British-American AI firm.