King Charles & Trump’s Relationship Takes Dramatic Turn as the Monarch Makes an ‘Unprecedented’ Move
King Charles still plans to meet with US President Donald Trump. The monarch previously expressed interest in meeting him shortly after he was inaugurated.
Prince Charles wrote a letter to President Trump with the intent of another state dinner. After it was shared by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump shared the contents of the letter: “Quite apart from this presenting an opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues of mutual interest, it would also offer a valuable chance to plan a historic second state visit to the United Kingdom. As you will know, this is unprecedented by a US president. That is why I would find it helpful for us to be able to discuss, together, a range of options for location and programme content.”
The letter continued, “In so doing, working together, I know we will further enhance the special relationship between our two countries of which we are both so proud.”
“I think the last state visit was a tremendous success. His majesty the King wants to make this even better than that, so this is truly historic,” Starmer said.
“The answer is yes,” Trump responded.
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Trump previously expressed a desire to go to the UK for his second state visit. “They’re going to do a second, as you know, a second fest,” Trump said, adding, “That’s what it is: a fest, and it’s beautiful, and it’s the first time it’s ever happened to one person.”
“And the reason is we have two separate terms, and it’s an honor,” he said. Trump continued, “I’m a friend of Charles. I have great respect for King Charles and the family, William. We have really just a great respect for the family. And I think they’re setting a date for September.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reacted to the act, “I think, to be frank, they [Canadians] weren’t impressed by that gesture … given the circumstance. It was at a time when we were being quite clear, some of us were being quite clear, about the issues around sovereignty.”
The President last visited the UK in 2019 when he was invited by Queen Elizabeth II for a state visit. He had afternoon tea with the then Prince Charles. Sources close to the late monarch reported that she found Trump “rude.” “A few weeks after President Trump’s visit, for instance, she confided in one lunch guest that she found him ‘very rude’: she particularly disliked the way he couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting,” Craig Brown wrote in the book, according to an excerpt serialized in the Daily Mail.
The invite comes after reports that succession plans are already underway. The European Editor-at-Large at the Daily Beast, Tom Sykes, revealed on the outlet’s podcast that “succession plans are gearing up” as “no one is really expecting Charles to live, you know, more than three or four years.”
“And I mean that in the context of that when he came to the throne, people definitely felt he could live ‘til he was the age of his mother or his father who was 99,” Sykes said. “So people definitely thought it was 20 years of the King Charles era and I think people much more now think it is now going to be a five, six year reign, something like that.”
Though the King recently spoke about his ‘frightening’ cancer diagnosis while hosting a reception for the cancer community at Buckingham Palace, it seems for now he’s doing just fine and a state visit is in the cards.
