{"id":461533,"date":"2026-04-30T14:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/461533\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:19:12","slug":"what-the-royal-state-dinner-guest-list-says-about-trumps-america-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/461533\/","title":{"rendered":"What the royal state dinner guest list says about Trump\u2019s America \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest lists for White House state dinners have always been political rather than social documents. Avidly chewed over in Washington<\/a>, they broadcast an administration\u2019s priorities, favoured businesses, top donors and media allies. They are supposed to reflect the country being honoured.<\/p>\n

By those standards, the Trump <\/a>guest list for the state dinner for British king Charles III and queen Camilla on Tuesday night was another whack at norms in an administration that likes to shatter them.<\/p>\n

Among the more than 100 guests were at least 10 US billionaires, six Fox News hosts, one Fox News executive, six conservative Supreme Court justices, numerous Silicon Valley tech titans and assorted friends of the president\u2019s. <\/p>\n

There were no British cultural figures and, for that matter, a meagre number of British overall. The British embassy in Washington appears to have had limited input into the guest list.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump welcomes King Charles to a state dinner in the east room of the White House in Washington on Tuesday. Photograph: Kenny Holston\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

There were also no Democratic politicians, which has been the case at other Trump state dinners.<\/p>\n

Previous White House social secretaries took note.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no attempt to reach out to the other side,\u201d said Gahl Hodges Burt, who was the White House social secretary for three years in the Reagan administration. \u201cThere are no clergy, there are no minority group representatives, there are no medical researchers, there are no vaccine developers. And I would have had the astronauts who just came back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s an impressive group. And a group you would expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear who put together the guest list, which is typically overseen by the White House social secretary, along with heavy input from the West Wing, the White House political operation and the White House liaison to Congress. Melania Trump, the first lady, has had no social secretary in her husband\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, her press secretary, Nick Clemens, declined to comment on the guest list or how it was put together.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Bernard, who was a White House social secretary in the Obama administration, said his goal was to have the guest lists reflect America. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like there was any attempt to make this look like something of the US overall,\u201d he said of the Trump list. \u201cIt\u2019s more reflective of the US right wing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s first term, he said, he would speak to the social secretary at the time, Anna Cristina Niceta Lloyd. \u201cShe would call me and say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re having a dinner in the Rose Garden. Tell me about the dinner you had in the Rose Garden.\u2019 And I\u2019d tell her about the lighting company. We shared stuff. There is no such person now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TimTim Cook, CEO of Apple, looks down a line of attendees during the state dinner. Photograph: Kenny Holston\/The New York Times
\n \"USUS supreme court associate justice Brett Kavanaugh and others at the state dinner. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Most of the British guests on the list were members of the official party travelling from London, among them Clive Alderton, the principal private secretary to the king and queen, and Tobyn Andreae, the communications director of the royal household. The other British guests included Harry Lopes, Camilla\u2019s son-in-law, and Otis Irwin, her grandnephew.<\/p>\n

Also included were Keith Poole, the British tabloid veteran who is now editor-in-chief of The New York Post; Ruth Porat, the British American president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google; and Rory McIlroy<\/a>, the Northern Irish golfer who just won his second Masters.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Watch: Donald Trump praises Rory McIlroy during speech marking royal visitOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Tina Brown, the British American journalist and the former editor of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, who regularly shreds the Trump administration in her \u201cFresh Hell\u201d Substack column (and who, needless to say, was not included on the guest list), called the document \u201cabsolutely classic.\u201d In other words, she said, \u201cit\u2019s the cronies, the money, the conservative Supreme Court justices.\u201d She mused that English actress Helen Mirren and English historian Simon Schama would have been good to include.<\/p>\n

Michael LaRosa, who was the press secretary to Jill Biden, the former first lady, was of the view that Democratic White Houses were no different from the current one in their partisanship. \u201cObama invited liberal journalists and opinion writers, and we invited the whole MSNBC crowd and Nancy Pelosi and her daughter,\u201d said LaRosa, who now works for Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm run by a top Trump fundraiser.<\/p>\n

The guest list for the dinner for the king and queen, he said, \u201cdidn\u2019t strike me as unusual. It struck me as par for the course. I always think of these things in terms of internal politics. What donor do we need to prime for the next cycle? Who is not getting tender love and care?\u201d<\/p>\n

Notable names on the Trump guest list included David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon; Steve Schwarzman, the CEO of the Blackstone Group; and Meg O\u2019Neill, the CEO of BP.<\/p>\n

At a 2007 state dinner for queen Elizabeth II and prince Philip during the George W Bush administration, guests included Nancy Pelosi of California, then the speaker of the House; Robin Roberts of ABC; and British historian Martin Gilbert.<\/p>\n

\"AA dinner menu on a table at the state dinner. Spring-herbed ravioli and Dover sole meuni\u00e8re were among the dishes. Photograph: Kenny Holston\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Full guest list<\/b><\/p>\n

More than 100 guests were invited to the state dinner that Trump hosted for king Charles and queen Camilla on Tuesday night. Here is the entire list of invitees provided by the White House:<\/p>\n