In the new world order heralded by Donald Trump’s extraordinary attack on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, King Charles III finds himself in a difficult position.
Every assumption made only a few weeks ago is now open to question but, although relations between Britain and the United States have often been fractious during the long history of the “special relationship”, officials in Sir Keir Starmer’s government and at Buckingham Palace still expect the countries to remain Nato partners and allies.
The monarch is likely to be asked to schmooze the US president by celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence, next year.
A state visit by the King and Queen to the US in 2026 is under discussion, possibly combining with Charles’ first trip to Canada as reigning monarch.
Charles, 76, has known Trump for years and kept up correspondence with him and his family. Government ministers hope Trump’s admiration for the Royal Family could prove a vital diplomatic card to play in securing British influence on the President in a world where the old rules and agreements no longer count.
But charming the populist president will stick in the King’s throat, according to those who know him well. He has made no secret of his loathing for Vladimir Putin since 2014 when, during an official visit to Canada, he compared him to Adolf Hitler in a discussion about Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine and annexation of the Crimea. “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler,” he said, in an off-the-cuff remark that caused a diplomatic row.
On 24 February last year, the second anniversary of the 2022 Russian invasion, the monarch sent a message praising the heroism of the Ukrainian people in the face of what he called an unprovoked attack.
“Theirs is true valour, in the face of indescribable aggression. I have felt this personally in the many meetings I have had with Ukrainians since the start of the war, from President Zelensky and Mrs Zelenska, to new army recruits training here in the United Kingdom,” he said.
How he will charm a US president who has spent the past few days trying to stop the G7 calling Russia the aggressor in a statement marking the third anniversary on Monday remains to be seen. “He will be exasperated by the way things are going,” said Dickie Arbiter, who worked closely with him during 12 years as a palace press secretary.
Arbiter noted that when Charles was Prince of Wales he boycotted a state banquet for China’s visiting president, Jiang Zemin, in 1999 over the communist country’s human rights record and its suppression of Tibet – he missed subsequent events in 2005 and 2015.
“But now he is head of state, he will do what the Government wants him to do,” Arbiter added, recalling how Queen Elizabeth II had to host a lunch for Idi Amin at Buckingham Palace in July 1971 and a state visit for the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausecu in June 1978.
However, Catherine Mayer, a US-born but British nationalised author of a bestselling biography of Charles, said even the late Queen drew the line at sending Christmas cards to Amin or inviting him to her silver jubilee.
“The current situation is much more highly charged on so many different levels and in Trump and Putin you also have people and machinery ready to amplify anything Charles does that could be construed as a sign of approval,” she said, hoping the King will avoid endorsing dictators and populists at odds with his values.
She added: “The King has been unlucky with the timing of his reign. If he had acceded a few years earlier, he would have found himself operating in an environment in which the countries he serves as head of state and a swathe of the wider international community, including the US, appeared to be in broad consensus.”
Nonetheless, even if the political climate in Washington is hostile, Britain will have to engage with the US, traditionally a popular destination for British royals because of the historic ties between the nations and also the number of billionaire philanthropists willing to contribute to their favourite charity causes.
“For better or worse, it is more important now than before that the prime minister visits President Trump, and even better if this were an official state visit, ideally in the UK,” said Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, director, US and the Americas programme at the Chatham House think tank, ahead of Starmer’s visit to Washington next week.
“There is little good that can come from a divorce between the US and Europe. The UK has a very clear role to play in working pragmatically to keep not only the US-UK relationship but the broader relationship between the US and Europe from going off the rails.”
After the turmoil of the war of independence and a later conflict in which British troops burned down the White House in 1814, it was only in the late 19th century that the UK and the US started to become closer. The special relationship really began in June 1939 when King George VI, accompanied by his wife Queen Elizabeth, became the first reigning monarch to visit the US.
Huge crowds turned out to see the King and Queen in Washington before they moved to the Roosevelts’ home at Hyde Park, New York, where they tasted hot dogs for the first time at a picnic. It made for wonderful pictures but behind the scenes there were much more serious discussions. George VI successfully lobbied an enthusiastic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to embark on a new era of cooperation and help Britain materially in what they all knew was the forthcoming war against Nazi Germany, in spite of the American public’s isolationism and reluctance to get involved in a European conflict.
Carolyn Harris, a Toronto-based historian, author and royal commentator, noted that on that historic trip the royal couple came from Canada and were accompanied not by a British politician but by the Canadian prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. She believes a royal tour of Canada followed by a state visit to the US next year could prove just as vital for both Britain and Canada with so much turmoil on the international stage and Trump threatening a trade war and calling for her country to become his 51st state.
“There are a lot of parallels with that 1939 visit,” she said, suggesting that the King could act as a voice for both countries in his private discussions with Trump. But on the face of it, of course, the US president is no Roosevelt seeking closer international cooperation.
Arbiter questions the wisdom of the King combing visits to both countries, where traditionally the British royals go to Canada, the senior overseas realm, before the US. “If he goes to Canada first Trump will throw his toys out of his pram,” he said.
Visiting the US first would go down very badly with Canadians, according to Robert Finch, chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada. Amid outrage in his country over Trump’s insults and aggression, Finch believes the sight of the King and Queen arriving in Washington DC in a Royal Canadian Air Force jet would be a powerful message to Trump and a sign of a new era of closer political and economic ties between the UK, Canada, and other Commonwealth nations.
Charles has not been to Canada since he became its King and a trip this year has effectively been ruled out because it will be an election year. Finch noted royal trips to Canada have been shortened to four or five days in the past few years. “I think it’s very important that the next visit to Canada is a more extended tour,” he said. “It has to be to every region of the country because this is the first chance for Canadians to see their monarch.”
The last significant polls in Canada in 2023 suggested more than half the country wanted to get rid of the monarchy, although it was not a priority for most. But Trump’s attacks have created a new sense of national identity and, according to Finch, helped rally support for the monarchy and boost the league’s membership by between 1,000 and 1,500 to around 10,000. “He is good for business,” said Finch.
Few others in Britain or Canada have said that this week.
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