King Charles III is preparing to fly to Washington DC for a state visit that is already facing fierce criticism. He is expected to attend a state banquet, pose for photographs and address Congress. And he will do all of this at the invitation of a man who, on the very day the visit was confirmed, told the United Kingdom to “go get your own oil” and that “the USA won’t be there to help you anymore.”
The state visit runs from April 27 to 30. Buckingham Palace confirmed it on March 31, acting on the advice of the UK government and at Donald Trump’s invitation. This marks the first UK state visit to the United States since Queen Elizabeth II’s trip in 2007. The King and Queen Camilla will attend a White House banquet. Speeches will celebrate the “special relationship.” Officials will talk of historic ties and shared values. But the backdrop to this pageantry could not be more grotesque. The last time Charles and Trump met, during Trump’s state visit to the UK in September 2025, protests filled the streets of London. Now Charles travels to Washington to toast the same man.
🇬🇧🇺🇸 On advice of His Majesty’s Government, and at the invitation of The President of the United States, The King and Queen will undertake a State Visit to the United States of America. Their Majesties’ programme will celebrate the historic connections and the modern bilateral… pic.twitter.com/DY1CltXzVo
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) March 31, 2026
The Man They Are Dining With
Donald Trump is waging an illegal war in Iran. On the day the visit was reaffirmed, Trump lashed out at the UK and other countries over the Iran war. “Go get your own oil from the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “The USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.” This is the man King Charles is going to honour with a state visit. This is the man the British government believes can be mollified through royal diplomacy.
The idea that Charles will wield sufficient soft power to influence Trump is, as Caroline Lucas put it, “for the birds.” She called Trump a “bully and a blackmailer,” a “rogue president who just launched an illegal and reckless war,” a man who is “ripping up international law” and treating Prime Minister Keir Starmer with “total humiliation.” Her criticism lands because Starmer has gone out of his way to preserve relations with Trump, only to be publicly slighted in return. To some critics, the UK delivered Brexit in the name of sovereignty, only to drift into deeper dependence on the United States, with this visit serving as a symbolic confirmation of that shift.
The British Public Knows What This Is
A YouGov survey last week found that 49 per cent of the British public oppose the state visit. Only 33 per cent support it. A Daily Mail poll showed even stronger opposition, with nearly 60 per cent of respondents saying the trip should not go ahead at this time. The Liberal Democrats have called for it to be cancelled. David Dimbleby, the veteran journalist, put it bluntly: “A state banquet? While he’s bombing the hell out of Iran and people are dying all over the Middle East…?”
“We’re dealing with a President who is a narcissist and a bully… a rebuke of some kind is necessary”
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) March 31, 2026
Broadcaster and journalist David Dimbleby says a US State Visit by King Charles “is a misuse of the King” and the UK is “giving Trump more than he deserves”.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/7BPH9R8BIw
The government is proceeding anyway because it has made a clear calculation. Trump is fascinated with the monarchy. He values his personal relationship with King Charles. And if dressing up in tiaras and waving from a carriage is what it takes to keep the special relationship on life support, then that is what they will do.
But critics argue the government is dressing up appeasement as diplomacy. They see a king being sent to honour a president who has insulted Britain, belittled its leadership and provoked public backlash at home. The contrast is especially stark because Prince Harry publicly defended British and NATO troops after Trump’s remarks about Afghanistan. Now Charles is expected to toast the same president his son openly challenged.
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The Ironic Pageantry
The absurdity of the tableau is hard to ignore. King Charles entered his second marriage after conducting an adulterous affair while still married to Diana. Donald Trump hosts him, now on his third marriage after multiple affairs and a documented history of sexual misconduct. The Church of England expects Charles to represent its values. American “Christian nationalists” hold up Trump as their champion of moral virtue. Both institutions ask these men to stand for something neither actually embodies.
They will toast the special relationship and pose for the cameras. Trump will use the images to project statesmanship, while the palace will use them to signal relevance. All the while, the world will remain the grim backdrop to the spectacle. The British public will be watching. And the rest of the world will see a former empire reduced to a supplicant, sending its King to flatter a man who has shown little respect for the alliance. This visit is less about diplomacy than about using the monarchy to soften Britain’s dependence on a hostile and unpredictable White House.
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Charles and Camilla will rue the day they meet up with trump again, mark my words . He will make sure they’re humiliated, if not through words or deeds it may be something shown with prince Andrew from the Epstein files , how many ways has that man have show that he cannot be trusted that they take him seriously , he has shown no loyalty to any one even if given what he wanted by them . I couldn’t believe after the millions spent hosting him at Windsor and all the derogatory remarks he has made about the uk ,the head of the monarchy is STILL meeting up with that person again. I’m watching the so called British colonisers kingdom crumble, into nothingness .
Astonishing how spendthrift they are, lavishing vast amounts of taxpayers money, stroking the ego of a moron, bigot, felon and tyrant.
The US and UK’s economic crisis are both in spiralling downfall, not to mention the catastrophic impact of warfare in the Middle East, Europe and Africa, yet there is trivial disregard to poverty, deprivation and struggles, experienced by their citizens, as a direct result of delusional political posturing and mismanagement.
Astonishing how spendthrift they are, lavishing vast amounts of taxpayers money, stroking the ego of a moron, bigot, felon and tyrant.
The US and UK’s economic crisis are both in spiralling downfall, not to mention the catastrophic impact of warfare in the Middle East, Europe and Africa, yet there is trivial disregard to poverty, deprivation and struggles, experienced by their citizens, as a direct result of delusional political posturing and mismanagement.
The man they are to be dining with
Donald Trump is waging an illegal war in Iran. On the same day the visit was reaffirmed, Trump lashed out at the UK and other countries over the Iran war. “Get your own oil from the Strait of Hormuz,” he thundered “The USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.” Trump is the man Charles is going to honour with a state visit. This is the man the British government believes can be pacified through royal diplomacy.