Preparations are said to have taken 40 hours per minute. There was a garden party with almost 3,000 sandwiches, a ceremonial welcome with nearly 500 military personnel, a State Dinner for more than 100, and an estimated crowd of 5,000 in Virginia town Front Royal. And at the center of it all was that 30-minute speech with no fewer than 12 standing ovations. As the dust settles on King Charles and Queen Camilla’s whirlwind State Visit to the U.S., there have been many takes on how it went. And for those involved in the planning, and who had a ringside seat as it unfolded, it is also a time to reflect.
“There were voices on both sides of the Atlantic doubting whether this visit was the right thing to do and the right moment to go ahead,” British Ambassador to the U.S. Christian Turner told T&C this week. “And what I’m sort of most proud of, really, is to see the way in which we used the visit to both step back and step up.”
Charles III and Sir Christian Turner, British ambassador to the U.S.Pool – Getty Images
(Pool – Getty Images)
Ambassador Turner—who was only appointed to the role in December last year following the sacking of his predecessor Peter Mandelson last September over his links to Jeffrey Epstein—was alongside the King and Queen every step of the way on the four-day trip. Turner, 53, hosted a garden party at his Washington residence after the royal couple touched down in the U.S, and traveled with them to New York and Virginia. He also played a key role in helping shape the narrative of the visit through a series of media interviews beforehand, emphasizing the fact that this was all about the 250th anniversary of Independence and long-term ties despite current political tensions.
“With the King, because he’s above politics constitutionally, he’s head of state, but he’s not head of government, it allowed him to paint that broader message about the enduring nature of this alliance,” Turner told T&C. “That deep friendship, I think, between the royal family and the American people. That, as I think he called it, is one of the special ingredients in the transatlantic partnership.”
King Charles and President Trump ahead of the State Dinner.Anna Moneymaker – Getty Images
(Anna Moneymaker – Getty Images)
Indeed, no-one exemplifies this regard for the British monarchy more than President Trump, who spoke at the White House about his personal ties to the royal family through his late mother Mary Trump’s affection for Queen Elizabeth. “That particular relationship between the King and the President, the respect that the President has for the UK, for the royal family, and for Her Majesty, the late Queen, those are those are things which actually are really quite personal,” Turner said.
Yet it was important to those planning the itinerary that there was a strong focus on people to people ties and not just leadership. “We also wanted to sort of almost have this as a gift between the two peoples, that broader relationship, showing the breadth and the depth,” Turner said, citing the program on Wednesday and Thursday in New York and Virginia during which the royal couple met many members of the public through community organizations or events. “My feeling is that it’s easy to reduce a relationship such as this, that I sit in the middle of, as being one between Downing Street and the White House or the White House and the Palace. It’s much bigger than that. It’s much more diverse, more plural in the most positive sense of those words.”
King Charles addresses a Joint Session of Congress.Chip Somodevilla – Getty Images
(Chip Somodevilla – Getty Images)
Of the centerpiece of the trip—the King’s historic speech—Turner described how “you could hear a pin drop at times” in the House of Representatives chamber. “I really felt the sort of the moment of history in that chamber personally. It was quite extraordinary,” he added.
And on the content of the message, he reflected, “I saw that the speech as a moment for us to transcend politics, yes, but to stand out as a powerful, celebratory, and genuinely bipartisan moment. And that core message, that while we may have our differences we are our strongest when we work together, I think, was incredibly powerful.”
Turner acknowledged the “specific issues that we rightly agree or don’t agree on as two governments,” but concluded of the trip, “It’s that broader enduring nature of the relationship that I hope we have celebrated and really shone a light on…Their Majesties touched a lot of people and that was quite humbling to be a part of.”
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