UK banks on royal diplomacy to soothe a strained alliance with Trump

MANCHESTER, England (CN) — King Charles III will travel to Washington later this month for a high-stakes state visit aimed at easing tensions between the United Kingdom and the United States, as relations between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Donald Trump deteriorate over the U.S. war with Iran.

The trip coincides with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a milestone both governments say will be central to the visit’s messaging about shared history and modern ties. Charles will address Congress — the first British monarch to give a speech to a joint meeting of U.S. lawmakers in over 30 years.

However, the visit, expected between April 27 and 30, comes as Trump has sharply criticized Britain and other NATO allies for limiting support for U.S. military attacks on Iran, straining what is becoming less and less of a special relationship.

The royal family has yet to formally confirm the schedule, but Trump said on social media the king would attend a state banquet on April 28.

“I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect,’’ Trump said on Truth Social. ”It will be TERRIFIC!”

The trip places Britain’s monarch, a politically neutral head of state who acts on government advice, at the center of a fragile transatlantic alliance.

The stakes for the alliance

British officials have spent months planning the visit with the White House and embassy staff in Washington, hoping royal pageantry might soften a president who has shown a fondness for both grand ceremonies and the British monarchy.

But the timing is delicate.

Throughout the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, Trump has accused European allies, including the U.K., of failing to provide sufficient support.

Some members of Parliament suggested the king should cancel the visit, especially in light of disparaging remarks Trump made about the Royal Navy and his comment that Starmer “is no Winston Churchill.”

But while the British prime minister has questioned the legality of U.S. strikes and rejected the idea of “regime change from the skies,” his sharpest public criticism of the president since taking office, he is allowing the visit to go ahead.

Starmer also initially refused a U.S. request to use the joint military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to conduct strikes on Iran, though he later allowed American forces to use British bases for what he described as “defensive” operations targeting Iranian missiles.

After the president said British troops in Afghanistan “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” Starmer condemned the remarks as “insulting and frankly appalling,” noting that 457 U.K. service members were killed in the conflict.

Trump has also unsettled allies by suggesting the U.S. could annex Canada and revive interest in acquiring Greenland.

Charles, who is also Canada’s head of state, has offered subtle signals of support for Ottawa in recent months, including meeting former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and planting a maple tree at Buckingham Palace, gestures widely seen as symbolic reassurance amid Trump’s threats.

The only card to play?

Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the British government has few options left to manage the relationship.

“The prime minister has seen all his attempts, many of them utterly excruciating, to keep Trump onside crumble to dust,” Bale said. “So the king is about the only card the government has left to play.”

He added that few expect lasting change.

“Nobody holds out much hope that it’ll make any difference in the long term but it might stop him mouthing off for a few days at least,” Bale said.

State visits are formally conducted by the monarch but organized on the advice of the government.

In Britain’s constitutional system, the king does not set policy but can be used to support diplomatic goals.

Craig Prescott, a constitutional law expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the political purpose of the trip is unusually explicit.

“I think it’s generally understood that visits such as this are taken on the advice of the government,” Prescott said, noting Buckingham Palace made that point clear in its announcement.

“State visits are political in a broad sense and they are used to further the government’s foreign policy objectives,” he added. “The king’s state visits to Germany, Italy and France in recent years were undertaken with the aim of showing that the U.K. has left the EU, but has not left Europe, and served to emphasize this point.”

With the king’s visit to the U.S., “the politics is a little more explicit,” he noted.

Prescott said there is limited precedent for a monarch being used so directly to ease tensions with Washington.

He pointed to Elizabeth II’s 1976 visit during a difficult period, though he noted U.S.-U.K. relations had already begun to improve by then.

“This has much to do with how Trump views the monarchy,” Prescott said, adding that British officials appear to be capitalizing on the president’s affinity for royal ceremony.

Controversy follows the royals

The visit also risks being overshadowed by unanswered questions by the king’s brother, the former prince Andew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Charles’ younger brother remains under intense scrutiny in the U.S. over his past association with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In February, Andrew was arrested on suspicion of sharing sensitive government information with Epstein before later being released.

His relationship with Epstein has been widely chronicled and his name is mentioned thousands of times in the Epstein files.

One 2011 email read, “we are in this together,” after an infamous picture of him with his arm around a teenaged Virginia Giuffre with Ghislaine Maxwell in the background was leaked. Andrew ended the email expressing the wish to “play some more soon.”

Giuffre later settled a civil suit against Andrew, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. She died by suicide last year.

Members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have called for Andrew to provide evidence about that relationship. He has so far declined to cooperate, and Buckingham Palace has not commented since his arrest in February.

As the king flies over 3,000 miles from London to meet Trump in the White House, he will be within 2 miles of Congress, where lawmakers are pushing for answers for the victims of Epstein.

Despite the controversy, public support for the monarchy in Britain remains stable.

Polling by Ipsos found 55% of Britons think Charles is doing a good job as king, while 38% approve of how the royal family has handled the situation involving Andrew.

This will be Charles’ first state visit to the U.S. as king, and the first by a British monarch since 2007, when Queen Elizabeth II visited President George W. Bush.

The king is not expected to visit his younger son, Prince Harry, who now lives in California with his wife, Meghan, and their children.

For now, the focus remains on whether royal diplomacy can steady a relationship under strain, however briefly, as Britain navigates one of the most unpredictable periods in its modern alliance with the U.S.

Courthouse News reporter James Francis Whitehead is based in England.

Follow @jayfranklinlive