The US President <\/a>has repeatedly attacked the Prime Minister publicly for not joining the offensive against the Iranian regime, saying he is \u201cno Winston Churchill\u201d for only offering military support in a defensive capacity.<\/p>\nIn a social media post on Tuesday, he again attacked the UK and other European countries, ordering them to \u201cgo get your own oil\u201d as he threatened to abandon the conflict in the Middle East without securing the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of those countries that can\u2019t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you\u2026 build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the USA. won\u2019t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren\u2019t there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It means the King will face a diplomatic minefield when he goes to Washington at the end of April, in particular with a planned address to Congress in the presence of the often-unguarded President.<\/p>\n
Charles will also attend a state banquet at the White House, with the visit intended to celebrate the British-American links and the 250th anniversary of the US.<\/p>\n
Trump declared the trip will be \u201cTERRIFIC!\u201d and a \u201cmomentous occasion\u201d in a post online, revealing the \u201chistoric state visit\u201d will take place over four days from April 27 to 30.<\/p>\n
The US President has long been an admirer of the Royal Family and has already enjoyed two state visits to the UK to visit the late Queen, Elizabeth II, and King Charles.<\/p>\n
And, in a mark of how important the relationship is to the US President, it is understood Trump intends to be closely involved with the details of the visit, which The i Paper understands, will be set by the Americans.<\/p>\n
Unlike Trump\u2019s visit to the UK, the King will only have the Queen for royal support and will be at the behest of a US schedule.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s a very awkward situation\u2019<\/p>\n
Ian Lloyd, author of The Queen: 70 chapters in the life of Elizabeth II, said the King was a \u201cmaster\u201d of diplomacy and \u201cwill handle it very well and make a speech that\u2019s quite appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The i Paper, Lloyd said if it was just a routine visit, not tied to a specific commemoration event, it could easily be postponed. But the tie-in with the 250th anniversary of American independence would make any cancellation a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very awkward situation because of the timing. I would think it\u2019s a diplomatic nightmare for the Palace and the British government and so on, I bet they all wish that the King hadn\u2019t made an agreement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lloyd said he expects the King will make a \u201cvery diplomatic speech\u201d at the state banquet, but anticipates that while Trump will revel in the state visit, for the King it will be \u201cquite agonising\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that it could also be quite awkward if the King is asked about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his links to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would overshadow the visit and that put the King in a very embarrassing situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The King and his aides will be braced for the US President\u2019s unpredictability and the risk of him saying something that breaches protocol, such as further insults about Starmer or the UK, and throws the visit off kilter.<\/p>\n
The King and Queen will not be able to meet with E<\/p>\n
pstein survivors during the state visit, the Press Association understands.<\/p>\n
\u2018Charles will be dreading it\u2019<\/p>\n
Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, said: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a slightly tense situation because of his dissing of Starmer and British institutions, starting with the armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
The royal biographer added that the King would be dreading the trip, even though he and Trump have corresponded for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Royal Family don\u2019t have a choice; they have to go where the government sends them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharles will be dreading it. I am sure Charles will not be happy about it but he knows it\u2019s his duty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he will relish the challenge. I don\u2019t think he wants another challenge. He\u2019s got the challenge of cancer and his (younger) son.\u201d<\/p>\n
The King is expected to try to charm his hosts by referring in his speeches to Congress and at a state banquet in the White House to his family\u2019s long personal connection to the US.<\/p>\n
He has visited the country 19 times before and the so-called special relationship goes back to his late grandparents, George VI and Queen Elizabeth\u2019s, state visit to the US on the eve of war in 1939.<\/p>\n
\u2018Special relationship\u2019 not under strain, UK says<\/p>\n
In its announcement, Buckingham Palace was careful not to give the precise dates of the trip yet. But on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he and First Lady Melania Trump looked forward to welcoming the royal couple for a \u201cHistoric State Visit from April 27-30th, which will include a beautiful Banquet Dinner at the White House on the evening of April 28th.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis momentous occasion will be even more special this year, as we commemorate the 250th Anniversary of our Great Country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect. It will be TERRIFIC!\u201d<\/p>\n
Starmer used the offer of Trump\u2019s second state visit to the UK, in 2025, as a thinly-veiled ploy to sweeten relations between the two leaders.<\/p>\n
UK Government sources dispute any suggestion that the so-called \u201cspecial relationship\u201d \u2013 a phrase used to describe the close ties and cooperation over security, intelligence and defence as well as cultural friendliness \u2013 is under strain.<\/p>\n
After the visit, Charles will travel on to Bermuda without Camilla for a royal visit to the British Overseas Territory.<\/p>\n
Starmer has faced pressure from senior Labour figures and others to advise the King to cancel or delay the visit as a result.<\/p>\n
Dame Emily Thornberry, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested delaying the trip rather than risk embarrassing the King and Queen, while senior politicians, including Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, have said the US visit should be cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Charles faces what is likely to be the greatest diplomatic test of his reign next month after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[141,59,57,58,984,50,14354,177655,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-506487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-donald-trump","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-news","tag-politics-long-read","tag-special-relationship","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}