King Charles III will travel to the United States for an official state visit in April, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Tuesday. The trip — which the king will carry out on behalf of the British government — had been expected, but it was cast in doubt as tensions between the longtime allies rose over the war in Iran in recent weeks.
The strained relations, characterized by disparaging remarks President Trump has made about Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government over Britain’s reluctance to join the offensive, will be a backdrop to the event. But there are hopes that the king’s visit could help smooth the fraught relationship.
Mr. Trump has previously expressed fondness for King Charles and the British royal family, and he seems to relish the pomp and ceremony afforded by a state visit.
“I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social shortly after the announcement. “It will be TERRIFIC!”
He said the state visit would be held from April 27 to April 30 and would include a banquet at the White House on April 28. Buckingham Palace declined to confirm the dates.
Some speculated the visit would be scrapped.
Though the state visit had been planned for a while, some questioned whether it would go ahead in light of the tensions over Iran. Recent polling shows that almost half of Britons are opposed to the trip. There is little appetite in the country for the war, and Mr. Trump has berated Britain about that for weeks.
Mr. Starmer has often been his primary target. The prime minister has tried to position himself as a conduit between Europe and the United States during other difficult moments in Trump’s second administration. But their relationship has publicly crumbled.
Shortly before Buckingham Palace’s announcement, Mr. Trump again criticized Britain in a post on social media, in which he called on countries including Britain to “get your own oil.”
Warren Stephens, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, warned last week that it would be “a mistake” to cancel the visit because of the conflict in the Middle East, adding that he expected it to be “a very meaningful trip” for the king.
The visit is largely symbolic, but here’s why it still matters.
The visit is a symbolic one, but it could also serve as a showcase for the longstanding ties between the two countries.
It will “celebrate the historic connections and the modern bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, marking the 250th anniversary of American independence,” according to the Buckingham Palace statement. King Charles will be joined by his wife, Queen Camilla.
While the full itinerary has not yet been announced, King Charles is expected to attend a state dinner at the White House and has been invited to deliver an address to Congress.
It will be the king’s first official state visit to the United States. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, undertook four visits, in 1957, 1976, 1991 and 2007. Mr. Trump made a state visit last year to Britain, where he was hosted by the king. That visit was historic, making Mr. Trump the only American leader to have been granted the honor twice. (In 2019, he was welcomed by Queen Elizabeth.)
The trip last fall proved to be an important trip for fostering the relationship between the two nations at a time of political turmoil, though Mr. Trump’s hailing of the countries’ “unbreakable bond” during the visit feels far from his current tone.
It remains to be seen whether the king’s visit to Washington will strike a similar note of unity. But Mr. Trump has expressed deep admiration for King Charles before, last year calling the monarch “a beautiful man, a wonderful man.”
Megan Specia reports on Britain, Ireland and the Ukraine war for The Times. She is based in London.
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