The view from Britain
Here’s what Britain wants to see from its king today.
The view from Britain
Here’s what Britain wants to see from its king today.
King Charles’ visit comes at a time when relations between London and Washington, D.C., are at a low ebb.
Keir Starmer’s refusal to join Donald Trump’s military strikes against Iran have prompted tirades from the U.S. president against the prime minister, the “special relationship” and Britain’s military capabilities.
For No. 10 Downing Street, the hope will be that the British monarch can mend some fences — maybe even thwart the vitriol directed at the PM, and remind Trump and his team of the importance of the relationship beyond the personal fallout with Starmer.
There is little expectation that there will be any immediate policy shifts.
Officials will be waiting with baited breath to see how Trump responds to Charles’ references to shared national security interests — including NATO, the Middle East, Ukraine and the trilateral AUKUS pact with Australia — in his speech to Congress.
Ukraine, in particular, is a subject which has faded into the background during the Iran crisis but is one the monarch cares deeply about, having hosted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on multiple occasions.
There are low expectations the meeting will see the tech “prosperity deal” — agreed during Trump’s historic second state visit last September — unblocked, but a reset of relations may lay the foundations for progress in the future.
As for Jeffrey Epstein, it is not in anyone’s interest to go there during the carefully choreographed occasion.
Even as Charles undertakes his diplomatic mission, the convicted sex offender’s long standing friendship with Starmer’s pick for British ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, is causing the British PM a massive domestic headache.
Political opponents are punching the bruise of his poor judgment in making the appointment with midterm elections looming in two weeks.
Charles’ own brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, is being investigated by police on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his connection to Epstein. Officials can take heart that any mention would be awkward all round.
For Starmer, who has been criticized by some lawmakers for forging ahead and sending Charles regardless of Trump’s insults, the bar is fairly low.
If the monarch can emerge without embarrassment, and a thin-skinned Trump charmed, it will be viewed as a mission accomplished.
Full pomp for Charles
It will be the first time a pass in review — a military ceremony that involves troops in four ranks in front of their commanders — is performed at the White House.
When President Donald Trump greets King Charles III this morning at the White House, the world will witness something new for the United States.
It will be the first time a pass in review — a military ceremony that involves troops in four ranks in front of their commanders — is performed at the White House. And, for the first time, there will be a Space Force Honor Guard formation at the White House.
The ceremony program will involve over 200 performers and the first performance by “The Commandant’s Own” United States Drum and Bugle Corps and The US Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps.
The U.S. armed forces represented at the ceremony will include “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, United States Army Presidential Salute Battery, United States Marine Corps Honor Guard, United States Navy Ceremonial Guard, United States Air Force Honor Guard and the United States Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard, among others.
How to decode the King’s Speech
Royal speeches and political interventions are generally delivered with a rare subtlety that requires close attention.
King Charles III will deliver the first royal address to Congress in 35 years today, and it may require a little decoding. The British monarch hits the Hill early this afternoon to deliver the key public speech of his four-day state visit, before a powerful bipartisan audience of congressional members, Supreme Court justices and U.S. military officials.
The last royal address to a joint session of Congress came via Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. This is a landmark political moment for Charles, with the Anglo-American relationship in urgent need of some TLC. But don’t expect the king to come out swinging. Royal speeches and political interventions are generally delivered with a rare subtlety that requires close attention.
So here’s what you need to know: Understatement is everything. British monarchs are not meant to be overtly political these days. That means choices of royal outfit, and even jewelry, are frequently interpreted as opaque political messaging. (Example: that time Elizabeth II essentially dressed up as the EU flag after Britain began the process of leaving the EU.) Keep a close eye out for unexpected headwear, oddly colored socks — you get the idea.
A monarch’s words can be subtler still. In 2014, during Scotland’s independence referendum campaign — with the late queen facing nothing less than the breakup of her entire kingdom — Elizabeth II’s sole intervention was to mention to a member of the crowd outside her local church near Balmoral that she “hoped people will think very carefully about the future.” This seemingly innocuous comment was front page news across the entire U.K., and widely interpreted as a seismic intervention on behalf of the pro-union side. By the standards of political debate in modern America, it would barely have registered at all.
Compared to that, Charles will actually be pretty punchy today, with the king on a mission to remind America of the value of its long-lasting security arrangements. He’ll preach shared transatlantic values, noting that despite disagreements over the past 250 years — the War of Independence, that whole “burning down the White House” thing — “time and again, our two countries have always found ways to come together.”
Most importantly, Charles will specifically reference NATO, the AUKUS nuclear defense deal and the war in Ukraine, according to royal aides. “Our defence, intelligence and security ties are measured not in years but in decades,” the king will remind those present. By royal standards, this is sledgehammer messaging, a plea to America not to abandon its commitments to the Western world. Watch out too for a pointed reference to the Royal Navy, which Charles served proudly as a young man. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both mocked the Royal Navy in recent weeks.
Charles may need to be a little less subtle in his private conversations with Trump, which resume at the White House today. In public, we get only a formal exchange of gifts and a history event involving Queen Camilla and first lady Melania Trump. Later, Charles heads to the Hill, and will meet congressional leaders of both parties for a rare bipartisan moment ahead of his 3 p.m. speech. They’ll all get together tonight for a state banquet.
A version of this first appeared in POLITICO Playbook. Sign up here.
What to watch: King Charles’ first full day in the US
It’s a jam-packed day where every utterance will be scrutinized on both sides of the Atlantic.
King Charles III’s four-day swing in the United States kicks off in earnest today as the monarch meets first with President Donald Trump and then delivers an address to a joint session of Congress before attending a state dinner back at the White House.
It’s a jam-packed day where every utterance will be scrutinized on both sides of the Atlantic, as viewers look to dissect exactly what the king means by analyzing what he says and, more importantly, what he doesn’t say.
Here’s what to watch.
1) Trump and Charles optics
Trump and the king will meet this morning in the Oval Office, where the president has hosted dozens of foreign leaders in the past 15 months from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The meeting is, for now, closed press, meaning no members of the media will be in the room to ask the president and king questions or observe their interactions.
Trump, however, has been known to change the rules of engagement at the last minute so there’s always a chance. That could set up a wild scene.
British monarchs typically engage with the press in controlled environments, while Trump is known for his freewheeling style and is just as likely to put his guest in the hot seat as the press. Last month, for example, he made a joke about Pearl Harbor during an Oval event with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. He also made a joke about the Nazis in front of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Maybe he knows a good one about the War of 1812.
2) Parallels with the Queen’s address to Congress
Queen Elizabeth II was the first monarch to address a joint session of Congress and in her 1991 speech, she memorably spoke about the importance of keeping NATO together.
Will Charles follow suit? Reports suggest yes but how forcefully remains an open question. Trump’s feelings on NATO are not a secret. He’s called it a “paper tiger” and disparaged the nations that make up the alliance.
Standing up for NATO will be seen as a rebuke of the president, his host. Saying nothing about NATO will be seen as a missed opportunity to remind Congress and the American people of its importance to the world.
The late queen, speaking amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, called on the U.S. to never forget why NATO should stand together.
“The swift and dramatic changes in eastern Europe in the last decade have opened up great opportunities for the people of those countries, they are finding their own paths to freedom,” the queen said. “But the paths would have been blocked if the Atlantic Alliance had not stood together, if your country and mine had not stood together. Let us never forget that lesson.”
3) Wednesday offers another chance to stress the alliance
The king and queen will travel to New York on Wednesday and stop at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan to attend a wreath laying. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg are expected to attend.
Sixty-seven people from the United Kingdom were killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and British forces were deployed to Afghanistan in the aftermath. It was the only time NATO invoked Article V, the compact that says an attack on one country in the alliance is an attack on all.
The king will also visit Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where there are 32 British servicemembers from multiple wars. Both are symbols of Britain’s commitment to the defense ties.
Those visits come after NATO allies, including U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, criticized Trump this year for suggesting that allied forces stayed “a little off the front lines” in the war in Afghanistan. Starmer called the remarks “insulting and frankly appalling.”
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