King Charles III should nix his rumored visit to the United States this spring to avoid being used as “a propaganda tool,” one political strategist advises.
Steve Schmidt, co-founder of The Lincoln Project and the Save America Movement, issued a warning on The Daily Beast Podcast about what would result from the 77-year-old monarch’s possible trip to the U.S. to mark the country’s 250th anniversary.
Though Buckingham Palace has yet to confirm whether Charles does indeed plan to visit the United States in 2026, the proposed trip was mentioned by President Donald Trump in September, following a state visit that included an overnight stay at Windsor Castle.
Schmidt, however, says the king should think twice.
“I have a message for the king: I’m involved in a group called the Save America Movement,” Schmidt told host Joanna Coles. “The king should not come to America in 2026.”
“Should he step foot on American soil in service of MAGA as a propaganda tool, then the crown will be attacked with an advertising campaign that would not be permitted in England,” Schmidt continued. “It will be no holds barred.”
The anti-Trump Save America Movement, which plans to spend up to $100 million against House Republicans ahead of the November midterms, would respond to the king’s visit similarly to how Trump was received in Great Britain last September: with images of him and Jeffrey Epstein projected onto buildings.
“I will project images onto buildings in New York City,” Schmidt pledged. “I will run ad campaigns that, again, boggle the British imagination.”
Schmidt, whose group has already been running ads in Denmark opposing Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland, questioned whether the crown would want to endure that.
“It will be mortifying for the entire British government, right?” he said. “It will be a trip.”
Schmidt went on to note how one prominent aspect of America’s independence had for generations strengthened the bonds between Great Britain and the United States: George Washington’s decision to serve only two terms as the nation’s first president rather than become a king-like leader.
Washington’s decision to step down as president and voluntarily relinquish power reportedly prompted King George III to declare him “the greatest character of the age.”
Trump’s actions as president, however, have not been in alignment with Washington’s “humility,” Schmidt said.
“Should the king come to Washington, it will be a celebration of Donald Trump in a moment of existential crisis for American democracy,” he explained.
The Daily Beast has reached out to both the White House and Buckingham Palace for comment.
Trump, 79, called his state visit to the U.K., which First Lady Melania Trump took with him, “truly one of the highest honors of my life.”
The Trumps received the royal treatment, including a 41-gun salute at Windsor Castle, where Charles treated them to a lavish state banquet and other ceremonial events. The president was enamored by it all.
Charles’s last visit to the United States was in December 2018, when he was still Prince of Wales, to attend the state funeral of George H. W. Bush.
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The post Why Trump Is Putting King Charles in Grave Danger: Political Strategist appeared first on The Daily Beast.
