{"id":435925,"date":"2025-09-19T11:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T11:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/435925\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T11:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T11:18:13","slug":"the-royal-family-flexes-its-soft-power-as-president-a-trump-gets-his-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/435925\/","title":{"rendered":"The Royal Family Flexes Its Soft Power as President a Trump Gets His “Fest”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The buzz word was \u201cunprecedented\u201d<\/a> and the mood was \u201cextra.\u201d President Trump\u2019s State Visit to the UK<\/a> was the ultimate example of Britain utilizing the soft power of the royal family with a President who has made his admiration for them very clear. Trump said it would be a \u201cfest.\u201d And, despite very mixed feelings from the public, the British Government was determined to make sure that\u2019s what he got.<\/p>\n

As the curtain falls on Trump\u2019s unprecedented second State Visit, the immediate takeaway is one of success. The 1,300 members of the military on parade may not have been sent into battle, but the particular aim that they were dispatched with was achieved. \u201cWe have a relationship like no other, it will always be that way,\u201d Trump declared alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the end of the two days.<\/p>\n

This was just one example of the President\u2019s many effusive words throughout the brief trip. Before his arrival, he declared<\/a>, \u201cMy relationship is very good with the UK and Charles, who is now King, is my friend.\u201d At his speech during the State Banquet<\/a> he summed up the visit as \u201ctruly one of the highest honors of my life.\u201d And as he was waved off from Windsor, he described Charles as \u201ca great gentleman and a great King.\u201d<\/p>\n

The political purpose was for Starmer to make progress with the President on key issues such as trade, Gaza and Ukraine. But it seemed clear that it was the pomp and pageantry that Trump was looking forward to. And, as such, that was crucial to smoothing the path for political talks.<\/p>\n

The royals are unelected and are not supposed to be political. But, as we have seen played out in the past two days, that is actually the key to their soft power (a term coined by Harvard Professor Joseph Nye to mean influence through attraction). As a politically-neutral figurehead, the King can extend a hand of friendship, a warm welcome, and form an enduring relationship that never has to risk souring through trick policy discussions.<\/p>\n

Keen interest in royalty can also be a form of soft power, and that is something that came sharply into play during Trump\u2019s visit. The President has spoken many times about his admiration for the royal family, something that seems to have been inherited from his Scottish mother\u2019s deep affection for Queen Elizabeth. This personal connection, coupled with his enthusiasm for pageantry, offered Britain a unique opportunity to appeal to him.<\/p>\n

The visit came after a tricky few years for the royals in which they have faced scandal, illness and become depleted in the number of working royals. A survey published just days before Trump touched down found that support for the monarchy in the UK has hit an all-time low. The National Centre for Social Research<\/a> found that 51% of people believe it is important to keep it versus 86% in 1983. And among 18 to 34-year-olds, 59% favor an elected head of state over royalty.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite ongoing questions about elected privilege, there can be no denying that it was royalty that enabled Britain to roll out the red carpet in precisely the way that it did for Trump. Without a royal family it would have been very different, if it had happened at all. Monarchy is an ancient institution, but there couldn\u2019t be a better demonstration of its relevance to Britain on the world stage today than this State Visit.<\/p>\n

The story that began with William the Conqueror building the first iteration of Windsor Castle 1,000 years ago can be directly traced to King Charles III, now head of the Armed Forces that Trump so enjoyed watching on parade. The President\u2019s admiration for Queen Elizabeth II remained pertinent to this trip as he laid a wreath at her grave in St George\u2019s Chapel before sitting down for dinner with her son. And his excitement about the next generation was clear in his declaration that William will \u201chave an unbelievable success in the future\u201d and that Kate was \u201cso radiant and so healthy and so beautiful.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"UKWPA Pool\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Donald Trump was seated between King Charles and Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, at the state banquet in his honor.<\/p>\n

If the British public has mixed feelings on the monarchy, they are clearer on Trump. Polling by YouGov<\/a> finds that he is disliked by 70% of people. There were protesters in central London<\/a> and Windsor throughout his trip, and historical images of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were beamed onto Windsor Castle the night before the President arrived.<\/p>\n

The prospect of Epstein coming up at the joint press conference that ended the visit was a potentially tricky moment for both Trump and Starmer following the sacking of the UK\u2019s ambassador to the U.S Peter Mandelson over his Epstein links. In the end, it was the last question after the leaders had taken several questions on Gaza and Ukraine, and Trump responded by saying that he didn\u2019t know Mandelson.<\/p>\n

While the two leaders still don\u2019t see eye to eye on some major issues, the BBC\u2019s diplomatic correspondent observed<\/a> at one point that the exchange “could have gone a whole lot worse.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have renewed the special relationship for a new era,\u201d Keir Starmer said. Exactly what that means for the future remains to be seen. But when it comes to relations with this administration, there can be no doubt that the royal family has played a pivotal role.<\/p>\n

\"Play\"uk\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy has reported on the British Royal Family since 2010. She has interviewed Prince Harry and has travelled the world covering several royal tours. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America. Victoria authored Town & Country book The Queen: A Life in Pictures<\/a>, released in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The buzz word was \u201cunprecedented\u201d and the mood was \u201cextra.\u201d President Trump\u2019s State Visit to the UK was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[1380,147875,1331,3989,1381,5105,7710,519,448,147874],"class_list":{"0":"post-435925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-76cee9a2-d4de-4ed9-9eb2-f75af7673c09","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-hasproduct-true","12":"tag-locale-us","13":"tag-royal","14":"tag-royal-families","15":"tag-royal-family","16":"tag-royals","17":"tag-shorttitle-the-royal-family-flexes-its-soft-power"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115230691591869948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435925","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=435925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}