US President Donald Trump has said the upcoming state visit by King Charles III and Queen Camilla could help repair a relationship between Washington and London that has grown increasingly strained in recent months. In a telephone interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday, Trump described the British monarch as "a fantastic man" and "a brave man," adding: "They would absolutely be a positive." The four-day visit begins on Monday, 27 April, and will include a private meeting between the King and Trump at the White House, an address by the King to a joint session of Congress, and stops in New York, Virginia, and Bermuda.
The visit — the first by a British monarch to the United States since Queen Elizabeth II was received by President George W. Bush in 2007 — comes at a particularly delicate moment for the so-called "special relationship." Tensions have mounted over Britain's decision not to join the US military offensive against Iran, trade tariffs, immigration policy disagreements, and the controversy surrounding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington. Trump reiterated in the interview that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer could "recover" politically, but only if he expanded North Sea oil and gas extraction and hardened immigration policy. Starmer responded by saying he makes decisions "based on what's in the British national interest," and that he would not be "diverted or deflected" from keeping Britain out of the Middle East conflict.
The personal connection between Trump and Charles stretches back decades — to a 1988 visit to Mar-a-Lago, when Charles, then a prince with a deep interest in architecture, travelled to Florida for a charity polo tournament. Despite sharply contrasting personalities and worldviews, the two men have maintained ties over the years, and Trump's well-documented fondness for royal pageantry is expected to lend the visit additional warmth. British officials have carefully choreographed the White House meeting to include only a photo opportunity rather than an open press exchange, in part to reduce the risk of Trump using the occasion to publicly criticise Starmer.
The stakes extend beyond diplomatic optics. The King's scheduled address to Congress — an honour previously granted to Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 — is expected to make a case for the shared language, culture, and values underpinning the Anglo-American bond. That earlier visit took place in the aftermath of a broad multilateral coalition to reverse Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, a contrast that throws into sharp relief how profoundly the US approach to alliances has shifted. Charles himself appeared to signal his intent ahead of the trip, saying in a statement marking what would have been his mother's 100th birthday that he takes "heart from her belief that goodness will always prevail."
Why this matters: the visit is a rare test of whether soft power and personal diplomacy can steady a bilateral relationship under structural stress. With Trump simultaneously threatening new tariffs on the UK over its digital services tax on American technology firms, and openly questioning Starmer's political future, the King's ability to project continuity and goodwill — without crossing into territory that is constitutionally the prime minister's domain — will be watched closely on both sides of the Atlantic.