King Charles will make a state visit to the US in late April, the Buckingham Palace said yesterday, a high-profile trip that the British government hopes will help repair relations with Donald Trump, damaged by the Iran war.
Charles and his wife Queen Camilla will visit the US in a long-planned trip to mark the 250th anniversary of that country’s independence from British rule, before the couple pay a visit to Bermuda.
“Their majesties’ programme will celebrate the historic connections and the modern bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States,” the Buckingham Palace said, adding the trip was being made on the advice of the British government.
It will be the first state visit by a British monarch since 2007 when Charles’ mother Queen Elizabeth made what was the fourth such US trip of her reign.
Trump said the king and queen’s visit would begin on April 27 with a banquet dinner at the White House the next day.
“I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“It will be TERRIFIC!”
Previously good relations between the US president and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been strained over the British leader’s reluctance to get involved in the Iran war and refusal to let the US use British bases to launch initial attacks.
While US forces have since been permitted to carry out what Starmer calls defensive strikes, Trump has repeatedly criticised the prime minister, saying he was “not Winston Churchill” and had ruined the historically close alliance.
Trump has derided Britain’s offer to send more military assets to the region, and even as the state visit was being announced, he launched yet another verbal assault on countries which had failed to help and were now struggling to get jet fuel, singling out the United Kingdom.
“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” he wrote on Truth Social.
As well as Iran, Trump has also changed his mind on a British deal with Mauritius to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, home to the strategically important US-British Diego Garcia air base, calling it a great mistake.
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