{"id":220256,"date":"2025-06-28T03:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/220256\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T03:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:12:16","slug":"how-donald-trump-bounced-king-charles-into-full-state-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/220256\/","title":{"rendered":"How Donald Trump \u2018Bounced\u2019 King Charles Into Full State Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

King Charles<\/a> has been \u201cbounced\u201d into hosting a full state visit for President Donald Trump later this year, after bulldozing reservations by the monarch who wanted to delay it.<\/p>\n

\"WilliamDonald Trump’s fascination with British royalty extends to Prince William, who he met shortly after the election in Paris. Oleg Nikishin\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Charles, has been irked in recent months by Trump\u2019s rhetoric about Canada\u2014a U.K. \u201crealm\u201d which counts the king as head of state\u2014becoming the 51st state. He proposed in a hand-written letter which Trump brandished in front of TV cameras an informal, private visit to his holiday home, Balmoral Castle, followed by a full state visit later in Trump\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

However a report in the London Times Wednesday claimed that Trump had rejected this cautious approach.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,President Donald Trump last met Charles on June 4, 2019, during his last State Visit Peter Summers\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Trump \u201cmade clear that his preference was for a full visit first, which would not be overshadowed by an informal handshake picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times adds that the legal document inviting a foreign leader for a state visit, called a manu regia, was signed by the king and hand-delivered to the White House last week. Details are likely to be announced soon. <\/p>\n

A former courtier told The Daily Beast: \u201cCharles has been bounced into doing it now by Trump. It\u2019s embarrassing for the palace, which sent the letter suggesting that there was going to be this cozy, informal visit first, but it looks like Trump saw that for what it was; an attempt to kick the can down the road. Given the general anxiety around the king\u2019s health, you can understand where Trump is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buckingham Palace did not respond to a request for official comment, either to the London Times or the Daily Beast, but typically courtiers strive to make clear that state visits are not personal matters, but undertaken at the request of the ruling government.<\/p>\n

In time-honored fashion, a source described as \u201cclose to the king\u201d pointed this out to the Times and denied any suggestion of discord between the Palace and the government over the visit. <\/p>\n

\"USUS President Donald Trump (2R), US First Lady Melania Trump (R), Britain’s Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (2L), and his wife Britain’s Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in 2019. CHRIS JACKSON\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The Times says that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer ordered the full \u201cbells and whistles\u201d state visit at short notice to cash in on the president\u2019s oft-stated affection and respect for the British royal family, while the Palace \u201chad hoped for a more \u00adleisurely and considered approach, building towards a full state visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times adds that the Palace \u201craised concerns\u201d about Trump\u2019s inflammatory statements that Canada should become the 51st state, arguing that \u201cimpugning the king\u2019s sovereignty\u201d as head of state of Canada was another reason to proceed slowly.<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s decision to present Trump with a personal letter from the king in front of TV cameras in the Oval Office took a surreal turn when Trump proceeded to open the letter, marked \u201cprivate and confidential,\u201d on camera and read potions of it out. One source described the episode to the Times as a \u201cc–k-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump flashed the letter in front of photographers allowing large portions of it to enter the public domain. <\/p>\n

Photographs of Charles\u2019 letter showed that he wrote that he recalled a 2019 State visit by Trump and his wife, Melania, with \u201cgreat fondness,\u201d adding that it was a \u201cpleasure to extend that invitation once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"QueenQueen Elizabeth II and Trump during the 2019 State Visit. Karwai Tang\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The letter suggested that if Trump were visiting his Scottish golf course, Turnberry, he could \u201cdetour\u201d to Balmoral which without \u201ctoo much inconvenience,\u201d and joked that a program offering \u201chospitality skills-training for young people\u201d meant they \u201coften end up as staff in your own establishments!\u201d <\/p>\n

The king also wrote: \u201cQuite 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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 program content.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIn so doing, working together, I know we will further enhance the special relationship between our two countries, of which we are both so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times said that Trump demanded a state visit first, saying he did not \u201cwish to see a holiday snap handshake at Balmoral during the summer overshadow the full glory of a state visit a few weeks later.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Charles has been \u201cbounced\u201d into hosting a full state visit for President Donald Trump later this year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,1760,518,532,7710,519,11571],"class_list":{"0":"post-220256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-king-charles","12":"tag-king-charles-iii","13":"tag-prince-william","14":"tag-royal-families","15":"tag-royal-family","16":"tag-royalist"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114758808106655183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}