The King and Queen are set to visit the US in late April
13:43, 31 Mar 2026Updated 13:46, 31 Mar 2026
The King’s visit to the US will go ahead next month as planned(Image: Aaron Chown/PA Wire)
Buckingham Palace has announced that the King’s state visit to the US is to go ahead as planned next month, despite calls for it to be postponed due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Charles and the Queen are set to visit US president Donald Trump in late April, which will mark the King’s first visit to the US as monarch and the first state visit by a British sovereign to America for nearly 20 years, since Queen Elizabeth II’s tour in 2007.
Charles and Camilla will commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence, attend a glittering state dinner at the White House, and the King will address Congress, the Palace confirmed.
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Exact date and details are still to be disclosed, but it is expected that Charles will stop off afterwards in Bermuda – without Camilla – for his first royal visit as monarch to a British Overseas Territory.
It comes after Trump had already revealed he would entertain the King and Queen with a state dinner, while US ambassador to the UK Warren Stephens said the King had been invited to address both Houses of Congress during his stay.
Ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle during the president’s second state visit to the UK(Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Wire)
The late Queen became the first British monarch to address Congress in 1991 when she attended a joint session in the Capitol building during her state visit in aftermath of the Gulf War.
The King’s trip comes in the midst of the Iran war, and controversy has grown in recent weeks as to whether the royal tour should be postponed or cancelled.
Trump has branded the UK’s approach to the Middle East conflict “terrible” and repeatedly lashed out at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, including describing him as “not Winston Churchill”, with the special relationship between the two allied nations appearing increasingly strained.
And the announcement today (March 31) came just minutes after Trump lashed out at the UK again. The US president told the UK and ‘those countries that can’t get jet fuel’ to take the Strait of Hormuz themselves – saying they ‘won’t be there to help you anymore’.
Senior Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry previously suggested it would be “safer to delay”, warning Charles and Camilla could be left feeling “embarrassed” because of the current crisis. But Mr Trump’s man in the UK Mr Stephens said it would be a “very big mistake” to postpone the visit, adding it would be a “very meaningful trip” for the King.
Issuing a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “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 relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, marking the 250th anniversary of American Independence. The King will then continue to Bermuda to undertake His Majesty’s first Royal Visit as Monarch to a British Overseas Territory.”
State visits are rarely postponed, except for security reasons and illness, and Trump declared earlier in March that trip was going ahead and that he was “looking forward” to meeting the King again, and more recently revealed: “He’s going to be here very soon, as you know, we’re going have a state dinner. It’s going be great.”
He added: “He’s a friend of mine.”
Responding to the announcement, Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said: “Donald Trump represents the biggest threat to our security, prosperity and peace of anybody in the world.
“He’s launched an illegal attack on Iran, he’s overseen the kidnapping of the president of a foreign country in Venezuela, he’s threatened to seize Greenland, and he’s pushing the interests of corporations capturing our wealth and resources against the public interest.
“Sending the King for another unprecedented state visit effectively whitewashes Trump’s actions. It sends exactly the wrong message, at a time we need to be standing up to his reckless, deadly bullying around the world.”
And Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “The Prime Minister is showing a staggering lack of backbone by pushing ahead with this state visit while Donald Trump treats our country with contempt.
“To send the King on a state visit to the US after Trump dismissed our Royal Navy as ‘toys’ is a humiliation, and a sign of a Government too weak to stand up to bullies.
“What appalling thing does Trump have to do next to make the Government see sense and cancel the state visit?”