{"id":22045,"date":"2026-04-25T20:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22045\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:20:26","slug":"im-a-white-house-correspondent-there-is-a-nervousness-around-the-kings-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22045\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a White House correspondent. There is a nervousness around the King’s visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The so-called \u201cspecial relationship\u201d between the US<\/a> and UK isn\u2019t feeling so special these days. In fact, one British Government source told me the S-word has been banned to describe it \u2013 an acceptance, perhaps, that the UK no longer holds quite such a prominent place in America\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

In truth, I\u2019ve long thought that this global love affair comes with an unbalanced power dynamic. Let\u2019s be honest, they\u2019ve always meant a bit more to us than us to them. But still, the strength of the relationship between respective prime ministers and presidents has persevered over decades.<\/p>\n

Margaret Thatcher<\/a> and Ronald Reagan<\/a> were said to have had an \u201cextra-special relationship\u201d. Tony Blair put his legacy on the line to back George W Bush in Iraq. And who can forget Theresa May awkwardly holding hands with Donald Trump during his first term?<\/p>\n

When Sir Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2018s turn came around at the start of Trump\u2019s second term, he went for a similarly loved-up vibe, wooing the returning US President with an embossed letter from King Charles III<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve previously reported on the\u00a0many hours that were spent meticulously planning that short visit to Washington DC in February 2025, with every detail scrutinised, even down to the best moment for Starmer to reach out and touch the President on his shoulder. But advisers kept the real trump card in the Prime Minister\u2019s pocket. They knew that an invitation from the King for an \u201cunprecedented\u201d second state visit would do the trick \u2013 and it did. You have a \u201cbeautiful accent\u201d crooned the President.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, is the decision to deploy the King once again them trying to use the same secret weapon?<\/p>\n

They would deny that, of course, claiming that a Royal visit to coincide with the 250th anniversary of American independence has long been on the cards. But privately, they admit that this is an incredibly high-stakes moment for bilateral relations.<\/p>\n

After all, this is the first state visit to the US by a British monarch in almost 20 years, since Queen Elizabeth II<\/a> came in 2007. And you have to go back to 1991 to find the only other time that our monarch has addressed Congress, as the King will do on Tuesday. Some say the echoes go further still \u2013 to the Queen visiting the White House in 1957 after relations were strained by the Suez crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"WASHINGTONQueen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Laura Bush and George W Bush on the balcony of the White House in 2007 (Photo: Chris Jackson\/Getty)<\/p>\n

That is why sources speak of painstaking planning, with 40 man (and woman) hours going into each minute of the programme, with meetings ahead of time between our most senior officials \u2013 from the ambassador down \u2013 and theirs, including the Vice President, Secretary of State and Chief of Staff in the White House. We will see cultural icons, carefully selected menus and thoughtful gifts.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard that key figures in Trump\u2019s team claim that last year\u2019s Windsor trip was seen as a high point for the President\u2019s second term. Trump loves Royalty. But he doesn\u2019t seem to love Starmer right now \u2013 with even more bad news on Friday \u2013 after Reuters revealed a Pentagon email suggesting withdrawing US support for British sovereignty in the Falklands<\/a> as punishment for a perceived lack of support for the Iran war.<\/p>\n

One senior source argued that Starmer could never have offered offensive support at the outset of the conflict \u2013 because the President failed to make a convincing argument in public or private. They added that Britain had nevertheless given the US almost everything it had asked for since. But the unpopularity of the war back home meant that Starmer had also deliberately played that support down, and instead distanced his Government from the US President.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fraying of ties that followed, with Trump dismissing Starmer as no Winston Churchill<\/a> and belittling the Royal Navy, was perhaps unavoidable, they said. But it\u2019s made things incredibly difficult for the hundreds of diplomats whose job it is to maintain healthy relations.<\/p>\n

The \u201cspecial relationship\u201d is less about a desire for warm vibes and more about critical co-operation that our defence and economic sectors rely on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"(FILES)King Charles and Donald Trump inspect a guard of honour at Windsor Castle in 2025 (Photo: AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Behind closed doors, some ministers and officials have spoken with the likes of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance<\/a> and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth<\/a>, suggesting that perhaps they could get Trump to lay off, at least a bit. There have been supportive public comments from key presidential allies. Rubio, for example, stressed Britain\u2019s role in the Strait of Hormuz after lobbying by our foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper. And the ties below the President-Prime Minister level remain as strong as ever, some claim.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019ve also heard a frank response \u2013 that a President who fields cold calls from journalists and speaks in public for hours each day cannot be held back.\u00a0And so nerves are running high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials have done everything they can to manage this state visit with careful planning and limited opportunities for shouted questions that could encourage Trump to let rip about Starmer \u2013 in front of the King. Behind the scenes, a gentle plea has likely also been issued to avoid criticising \u201cHis Majesty\u2019s Naval Service\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many are hoping and praying that the King and Queen might turn the tide and shift the narrative. That even with the strains of the splits over Iran, Trump\u2019s love of Royalty will win the day. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But the mood is undoubtedly tense, as everyone involved in organising the visit holds their collective breath, nervous as hell that Trump could simply brush niceties aside and make clear his disdain for Starmer and his Government, even in front of the King.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The so-called \u201cspecial relationship\u201d between the US and UK isn\u2019t feeling so special these days. In fact, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[361,94,1049,1760,5,6,1574,10049],"class_list":{"0":"post-22045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-keir-starmer","10":"tag-king-charles-iii","11":"tag-royals","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-us-politics","15":"tag-washington-dc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116467205590088344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}