For a few hours in the aftermath of the Saturday night gunfire in the vicinity of US president Donald Trump, Monday’s painstakingly planned state visit by British king Charles wavered in a fog of uncertainty.
It would mark just the third state visit by a British monarch since the American Revolution of 1776 and was planned to coincide with this year’s 250th year of independence. But after the latest episode of US politically motivated violence, was it safe?
Transatlantic negotiations continued throughout Sunday before Buckingham Palace issued a statement confirming that “acting on advice of government, we can confirm the state visit by their majesties will proceed as planned. The king and queen are most grateful to all those who have worked at pace to ensure this remains the case and are looking forward to the visit getting under way tomorrow.”
Trump, seemingly unfazed by the shooting attack at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, during which an assailant stormed the perimeter security barricade inside the Hilton hotel and was subdued after shots were fired, issued his own declaration through the less formal medium of Fox News.
“King Charles is coming and he’s a great guy.”
It will certainly mark the most delicate diplomatic engagement the 77-year-old king has undertaken since assuming the throne three years ago. He is just the third monarch to engage in a state visit of the United States, following in the footsteps of king George VI in 1939 and his mother, queen Elizabeth II, who made the first of six visits in 1957.
But this occasion coincides with a moment when what Winston Churchill defined as the “special relationship” between both nations has been under acute strain. Much water has passed under the bridge since Keir Starmer, in February of last year, produced a letter in the Oval Office confirming an invitation from “his Majesty, the King” for Trump to enjoy a second state visit to Britain. “This really is special,” Starmer said. “It has never happened before.”
Now, the British prime minister is frequently the subject of Trump’s general caustic ire about the lack of European support for the US/Israeli war with Iran.
Trump’s fascination with the pomp and baubles of British royalty remains undimmed and he has frequently expressed his affection for Charles.
But the visit is complicated by the rank undercurrent of the Epstein scandal and of the long association between the king’s brother Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, recently the subject of an arrest in Britain and confined to a sort of permanent disgrace, and the New York financier. There have been calls for Andrew to testify before the US Congress about his relationship with Epstein.
Trump has also faced repeated questions about the failure of the US department of justice to release the entire tranche of files relating to the mammoth federal investigation into Epstein.
The visit itinerary will see the king address Congress on Tuesday. The itinerary also includes a banquet in the White House on Tuesday evening and a visit to Virginia and the 9/11 memorial in New York, where the king will meet the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
There is considerable British trepidation that the unpredictable US president will use the visit to vent his frustrations over Starmer’s low-key intransigence in relation to Iran, while the tone and message of Charles’s address on the Capitol will be keenly dissected on both sides of the Atlantic.
The festivities started with an informal tea at the White House on Monday afternoon. And 250 years on, tea remains a touchy subject between the US and Britain.
