President Donald Trump received King Charles III in a pomp-filled ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, as the British monarch visited the U.S. capital at the tensest moment in Anglo-American relations in generations.
The king, who is on his first state visit to the United States since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in 2022, is capitalizing on Trump’s longtime fascination with the British royal family. Trump has attacked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his reluctance to join forces with Washington in the president’s attack on Iran. But he has shown no such aggression to Charles, embracing the monarch and boasting about what he says is their close relationship.
The president welcomed Charles and Queen Camilla with an elaborate outdoor celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, as a military band dressed in Revolutionary-era garb played marches on fifes and drums. The two leaders and their wives stood for their anthems: “God Save the King” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which commemorates British bombs bursting in the air during the War of 1812.
“In the centuries since we won our independence, Americans have had no closer friends than the British,” Trump told the gathered dignitaries. “We share the same root, we speak the same language, we hold the same values, and together our warriors have defended the same extraordinary civilization under twin banners of red, white and blue.”
Trump spoke in unusually personal terms about his mother’s regard for the British royal family, declaring that Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, a Scottish-born immigrant, admired Elizabeth and had a “crush” on Charles. His mother was born in the Hebrides islands — “real serious Scotland,” Trump said.
He spoke of the healing of wounds of ancient quarrels, noting that Charles’s speech to Congress, scheduled for later Tuesday, involved the irony of the heir to King George III speaking to the heirs of the gathering of representatives of the 13 colonies that declared independence from Britain in 1776.
“If John Adams and George Washington or the king’s fifth great-grandfather could see that sight, they might be absolutely shocked, but probably only for a moment,” Trump said. “Surely they would be delighted that the wounds of war healed into the most cherished friendship.”
Charles said nothing public at the White House ceremony, commenting to Trump about the military detachments who marched across the South Lawn but saving his deeper thoughts for Congress, where he was scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. He will be the second British monarch, and the first British king, to speak to Congress, after his mother in 1991.
Security was tight at the White House ceremony three days after a gunman attempted to storm the White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday, but officials have said that the king’s engagements would proceed as planned.
British officials have said they hope their monarch can paper over tensions between Washington and London, using his royal razzle-dazzle to remind Trump and Americans of the ties that endure no matter the disagreements of the day.
Trump and other senior administration officials have taken aim at Starmer out of frustration at Britain’s initial reluctance to allow U.S. fighter jets to use British bases in the course of the attack on Iran. British leaders subsequently reversed course once the war started, and Iran fired back, saying that national law allowed them to commit their facilities to defense engagements, not offensive ones. Starmer has promised to help secure the Strait of Hormuz once the hot phase of hostilities ends.
After the speech to Congress, Trump is scheduled to host Charles for a state dinner at the White House, the second of his second term.
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