(Bloomberg) -- To say the special relationship is going through a rough patch ahead of King Charles III’s visit would be an exercise in British understatement.
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 “fantastic man,” he’s been heaping scorn on the country’s elected prime minister, mocking Keir Starmer as weak and unreliable for refusing to join America’s initial strikes on Iran.
Trump has threatened to reopen a trade deal the two nations signed last year and withdrew his support for Starmer’s plan to give up a strategic island chain in the Indian Ocean. He’s warned the UK might have learn to fight for itself, questioning one of the US’s deepest alliances, even as American warplanes took off from English bases en route to the Middle East.
It provides an awkward backdrop for a state visit meant to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence from British rule. Charles — the fifth great-grandson of King George III, whom America declared its independence from — 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.
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.
“I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side,” Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said in Parliament earlier this month, dismissing the US president as a “corrupt gangster.” “We cannot put his majesty in that position.”
The visit takes place days after a shooting at the hotel where the White House correspondents’ dinner was taking place, forcing Trump to be rushed from the stage. The UK government and the administration are “working closely to ensure the security arrangements are appropriately in place” for the King’s trip, Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, told Sky News on Sunday.
Trump has complained that “unfortunately, Keir is not Winston Churchill,” 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.
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’ 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’s victims. The king has passed up a chance to meet Epstein’s victims while in the US.
Starmer, who approved the king’s US trip at the height of his recent feuding with Trump, has said he hopes the monarchy would be able to “reach through the decades” and underscore the durability of the UK-US bond. After all, the two allies have had their share of diplomatic clashes over Charles’ lifetime, such as when Starmer’s 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.
Trump told the BBC on Thursday that he believed the king’s visit could “absolutely” repair ties between the two countries. It will be the first state visit by a British monarch since Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, made the trip in 2007.
Some 60% of Americans believe it’s 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’s largest single trading partner with almost $145 billion in two-way commerce last year.
Starmer’s early gesture toward Trump — theatrically producing a state visit invitation from Charles in the Oval Office — 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.
“There 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,” said Philippe Dickinson, deputy director at the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative and a former British diplomat who’s worked on royal visits. “This is probably the trump card that the UK can play, but, as we’ve seen, it has diminishing returns.”
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 “No Kings” protests. And he seems to have a particular affinity for the monarchy in Britain, attributed variously to his mother’s Scottish heritage and the golf courses he owns there.
Charles will look to leverage such connections, with the Royal Family’s 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.
While this will be Charles’ first visit to the US since becoming king in 2022, he made the trip 19 times during his long tenure as Prince of Wales.
“President Trump has always had great respect for King Charles, and their relationship was further strengthened by the president’s historic trip to the United Kingdom last year,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said on Friday, without referencing the national relationship. “The president looks forward to a special visit by Their Majesties, which will include a beautiful state dinner and multiple events throughout the week.”
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’s concerns were communicated to the White House, the Sun newspaper reported at the time.
Britain’s royals, unlike Trump, tend to deal in subtleties, such as Charles’ gentle nudge during last year’s visit by the US president for continued American military support for Ukraine. “As tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace,” he said to a room full of the US administration’s most senior officials.
Charles’ heir, Prince William, and his wife, Princess Catherine, are sitting this trip out, although they were prominent participants in Trump’s visit to the UK.
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 traveled to Ottawa to deliver the ceremonial speech from the throne amid Trump’s taunts about making the country the “51st state” — the first such appearance since 1977.
“The True North is indeed strong and free!” he said, referencing Canada’s national anthem.
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.
“Will this visit stop Trump from attacking Starmer? No, because he doesn’t operate in the old paradigm of foreign policy,” said Ben Judah, who served as an adviser to Britain’s foreign secretary in the run-up to the president’s visit last year. “But it might interrupt that for a few days.”
--With assistance from Kate Sullivan and Irina Anghel.
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