King Charles III and Queen Camilla Will Visit D.C., New York and Virginia

King Charles III and Queen Camilla of Britain will make a four-day visit to the United States at the end of April to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary of independence, Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday.

The visit will begin on April 27 and include a state dinner at the White House, a stop in New York City where the royal couple will meet with families of 9/11 victims, and a meeting with Native Americans at a national park in Virginia.

The king will also deliver a speech to Congress, marking only the second time that a British monarch has addressed American lawmakers in the chamber. Queen Elizabeth II, the king’s mother, was the first to do so during a visit to the United States in 1991.

Diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic have been working for months to choreograph the royal trip, which is intended to underscore the close bonds between the two countries, often referred to as a “special relationship.”

But the visit comes at a fraught time in relations between the United States and Britain. President Trump has repeatedly mocked and belittled Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain during the past two months, accusing him of cowardice for failing to join in America’s war of choice against Iran.

In an interview earlier this month, Mr. Trump told The Telegraph newspaper that he believed the king “would have taken a very different stand, but he doesn’t do that. I mean, he’s a great gentleman.”

The president’s harsh language about Mr. Starmer and his threats to annihilate Iranian civilization prompted some British politicians to call on the palace to cancel the king’s visit. Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrat party, made that case to Mr. Starmer in Parliament on Monday.

“He is a dangerous and corrupt gangster, and that is how we must treat him,” Mr. Davey said of Mr. Trump. “So will the prime minister advise the king to call off his state visit to Washington before it’s too late? Because I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side. We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”

The prime minister responded by calling the president’s language about Iran “wrong” but saying that “what the monarchy is able to do through the bonds that they build is reach through the decades.” He added that “the purpose of the visit is to mark the 250th anniversary of the relationship between our country and the United States.”

After the events at the White House and Capitol Hill, the king and queen will travel to New York. In addition to marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the king will meet with business and financial leaders and will visit a grass-roots organization that mentors children. The queen, who has made literacy one of her priorities, will attend an event to celebrate the 100th birthday of Winnie the Pooh, the palace said.

In Virginia, the royal couple will watch performances by Appalachian cultural groups and attend what palace officials described as a “block party” as part of the American 250th anniversary celebrations.

“The visit will be an opportunity to recognize the shared history of our two nations,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement, “the breadth of the economic, security and cultural relationship that has developed since then; and the deep people-to-people connections which unite communities.”

After leaving the United States, the king and queen will travel to Bermuda for the king’s first visit as monarch to a British overseas territory.

Michael D. Shear is the chief U.K. correspondent for The New York Times, covering British politics and culture and diplomacy around the world.

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