To say the special relationship is going through a rough patch ahead of King Charles III\u2019s visit would be an exercise in British understatement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 77-year-old monarch will arrive in Washington on Monday with ties between the UK and the US at their lowest point since the Suez Crisis in the 1950s. While President Donald Trump often praises Charles as a \u201cfantastic man,\u201d he\u2019s been heaping scorn on the country\u2019s elected prime minister, mocking Keir Starmer as weak and unreliable for refusing to join America\u2019s initial strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump has threatened to reopen a trade deal the two nations signed last year and withdrew his support for Starmer\u2019s plan to give up a strategic island chain in the Indian Ocean. He\u2019s warned the UK might have to learn to fight for itself, questioning one of the US\u2019s deepest alliances, even as American warplanes took off from English bases en route to the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Strict protocols<\/p>\n
It provides an awkward backdrop for a state visit meant to mark the 250th anniversary of America\u2019s Declaration of Independence from British rule. Charles \u2014 the fifth great-grandson of King George III, whom America declared its independence from \u2014 is bound by constitutional convention to stay above politics. And his interactions are governed by strict protocols designed to maintain dignity and respect for the throne.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump, 79, meanwhile, seems increasingly unconcerned with convention and protocol in his second term, illustrated by his recent broadsides at the pope, raising the risk of an embarrassing moment that deepens the transatlantic rift. The king, with Queen Camilla by his side, will have to navigate a bilateral meeting with Trump, a White House banquet and a speech to a joint session of Congress during his four-day visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side,\u201d Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said in Parliament earlier this month, dismissing the US president as a \u201ccorrupt gangster.\u201d \u201cWe cannot put his majesty in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Appropriate security arrangements<\/p>\n
The visit takes place days after a shooting at the hotel where the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner was taking place, forcing Trump to be rushed from the stage. The UK government and the administration are \u201cworking closely to ensure the security arrangements are appropriately in place\u201d for the King\u2019s trip, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, told Sky News on Sunday. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump has complained that \u201cunfortunately, Keir is not Winston Churchill,\u201d the late prime minister who popularized the special relationship term in the wake of World War II. Instead, he accused Starmer of sounding like Neville Chamberlain, whose appeasement policy has been blamed for emboldening Nazi Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Besides criticizing Starmer, Trump has frequently mused about annexing Canada, one of the 15 countries that count the British monarch as their head of state. Charles\u2019 decision to strip his brother, Andrew, of his royal titles over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, offers another point of contrast with Trump who has been accused of holding back efforts to secure justice for the late sex offender\u2019s victims. The king has passed up a chance to meet Epstein\u2019s victims while in the US.<\/p>\n
Share of diplomatic clashes<\/p>\n
Starmer, who approved the king\u2019s US trip at the height of his recent feuding with Trump, has said he hopes the monarchy would be able to \u201creach through the decades\u201d and underscore the durability of the UK-US bond. After all, the two allies have had their share of diplomatic clashes over Charles\u2019 lifetime, such as when Starmer\u2019s Labour forebearer, Harold Wilson, refused to join US military action in Vietnam or when Washington opposed British and French efforts to assert control over the Suez Canal in 1956.<\/p>\n
Trump told the BBC on Thursday that he believed the king\u2019s visit could \u201cabsolutely\u201d repair ties between the two countries. It will be the first state visit by a British monarch since Charles\u2019 mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made the trip in 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some 60% of Americans believe it\u2019s important to have a good relationship with the UK, according to a poll of more than 2,000 US voters conducted by Public First this month, with similar views among Republicans and Democrats. The US is the UK\u2019s largest single trading partner with almost $145 billion in two-way commerce last year.<\/p>\n
Starmer\u2019s early gesture toward Trump \u2014 theatrically producing a state visit invitation from Charles in the Oval Office \u2014 has been credited with ensuring a surprisingly smooth start to the relationship. But the banquet tables at Windsor Castle had hardly been cleared in September, when Trump began accusing Starmer of being soft on immigration and stymieing oil-and-gas extraction in the North Sea.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a real hope that this can push a reset button in the personal dynamics and the way the president feels personally about the UK and this government,\u201d said Philippe Dickinson, deputy director at the Atlantic Council\u2019s Transatlantic Security Initiative and a former British diplomat who\u2019s worked on royal visits. \u201cThis is probably the trump card that the UK can play, but, as we\u2019ve seen, it has diminishing returns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s affinity for monarchy<\/p>\n
Trump has embraced associations with royalty to a degree unprecedented by past presidents, posting pictures of himself wearing a crown, putting his face on commemorative coins and inspiring massive \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests. And he seems to have a particular affinity for the monarchy in Britain, attributed variously to his mother\u2019s Scottish heritage and the golf courses he owns there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Charles will look to leverage such connections, with the Royal Family\u2019s cherished Balmoral Castle sitting just 60 miles (97 kilometers) from Trump International in Aberdeenshire. The visit offers a chance to nudge Trump toward a softer position on Europe in a less politically charged context, according to British diplomats, who said they believed the president would be on his best behavior around the king.<\/p>\n
While this will be Charles\u2019 first visit to the US since becoming king in 2022, he made the trip 19 times during his long tenure as Prince of Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president\u2019s historic trip to the United Kingdom last year,\u201d White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said on Friday, without referencing the national relationship. \u201cThe president looks forward to a special visit by Their Majesties, which will include a beautiful state dinner and multiple events throughout the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, Trump issued a rare corrective to comments he had made dismissing the contribution by Britain and other allies to military campaigns in Afghanistan. The shift came after the king\u2019s concerns were communicated to the White House, the Sun newspaper reported at the time. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s royals deal in subtleties<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s royals, unlike Trump, tend to deal in subtleties, such as Charles\u2019 gentle nudge during last year\u2019s visit by the US president for continued American military support for Ukraine. \u201cAs tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace,\u201d he said to a room full of the US administration\u2019s most senior officials.<\/p>\n
Charles\u2019 heir, Prince William, and his wife, Princess Catherine, are sitting this trip out, although they were prominent participants in Trump\u2019s visit to the UK. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The king, who has long been known for his advocacy on issues such as the environment, has shown a greater willingness than his mother to wade into contentious waters. Last year, he pointedly travelled to Ottawa to deliver the ceremonial speech from the throne amid Trump\u2019s taunts about making the country the \u201c51st state\u201d \u2014 the first such appearance since 1977.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe True North is indeed strong and free!\u201d he said, referencing Canada\u2019s national anthem. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, diplomats expect the king to steer clear of anything that could be perceived as a rebuke to the US president. The goal will be to stabilize a relationship going through one of its most difficult periods in decades. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWill this visit stop Trump from attacking Starmer? No, because he doesn\u2019t operate in the old paradigm of foreign policy,\u201d said Ben Judah, who served as an adviser to Britain\u2019s foreign secretary in the run-up to the president\u2019s visit last year. \u201cBut it might interrupt that for a few days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To say the special relationship is going through a rough patch ahead of King Charles III\u2019s visit would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-552005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552005","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=552005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}