King Charles III invoked his forebear George III during President Trump’s state visit to Britain this week, saying his 18th-century ancestor did not “spare his words when he spoke of the revolutionary leaders” in the colonies.
Charles almost certainly spared Mr. Trump a few of his words, as likely did Prime Minister Keir Starmer. On a state visit that was more about flattering the president than forging policy breakthroughs, Charles might instead have cited George’s line to the Americans from the musical “Hamilton”: “You’ll be back.”
For Mr. Trump, Britain was an enchanting diversion from a United States convulsed in the toxic aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s shooting death. It offered an imperial-minded president a form of validation, putting him in the company of a king with whom Mr. Trump identifies, in a country with which he has ancestral ties.
Mr. Trump, of course, was on a return state visit to Britain, a privilege so singular that he joked that it better not happen again. The two days of pageantry, which unspooled from gilded carriages and marching Grenadiers to aerobatic jets and flag-draped parachutists, plainly left Mr. Trump gratified.
What was less clear after he departed Mr. Starmer’s country residence, Chequers, for Washington on Thursday was whether this precedent-shattering display of hospitality would translate into any lasting gains for Britain.
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The post Flattery and Flourish for Trump. For His U.K. Hosts, Relief at Avoiding Strife. appeared first on New York Times.
