As a constitutional monarch, King Charles III has no obvious direct role in dealing with the crisis in diplomacy that Donald Trump has triggered with many of America’s closest allies. In a series of personal meetings, the British sovereign has taken on elevated significance as the US tilts away from the eight-decade alliances it enjoyed with other western nations.
Mr Trump’s mood was said to be very good about a forthcoming state visit to the UK. It is his second state visit to the country, following his first-term trip in 2019. King Charles’s letter setting out the invitation, as well as a proposed meeting in Scotland, where Mr Trump owns a couple of golf courses, was handed over in the Oval Office by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his meeting with the US leader.
So far, so good. Perhaps Mr Starmer avoided the fate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a day later – there was a shouting match – by using the letter as a gesture to open up Mr Trump’s goodwill. A senior royal adviser has said the king will undoubtedly hope his decades of experience with US leaders can help deal with some of the tension with Washington.
The royals have the option of thinking in terms of decades and they don’t have to conform to the pressures of the latest news cycle in making their interventions.
There are pictures of the British monarch as a boy meeting then US president Dwight D Eisenhower on the royal estate in Balmoral in the 1950s. King Charles has met and held discussions with every US president since the time of Richard Nixon. The royal aide, speaking at the weekend, said the late Queen Elizabeth would regularly recall to one president the kind of conversations she had appreciated with their predecessors.
However, the positivity emanating from the White House may also have immediately cooled, according to reports from the US. Within days of Mr Trump brandishing the invitation letter live on air, King Charles was engaged with some of the leaders most on edge because of the US President’s policies.
The king invited Mr Zelenskyy to his country estate to hear from the Ukrainian leader only days after he was thrown out of the White House. King Charles was willing to showcase an intimate royal audience, knowing the White House glare could easily attach itself to the event. With the Europeans announcing their intention to begin rearmament out of fear of a US pullback, there was a sense that the royal family, alongside the UK government, was giving a boost to solidarity in the face of Washington’s hostility.
The UK monarch is also head of state of Canada. There, his role is represented by the Governor General while ultimately the monarch is a symbolic head of the nation. The US President has taken to trash-talking Canada as the 51st state. The tariff wars he has initiated around the world are particularly bearing down on Canadian trade, implying the country of 40 million is freeloading its existence on the back of American prosperity.
There have been many calls from Canadians for King Charles to speak out against the US encroachment. Following his meeting with Mr Zelenskyy, the king held a farewell audience for Justin Trudeau, the departing Canadian prime minister. Mark Carney, the new Canadian leader, is well known in royal circles. He has served as governor of the Bank of England and worked with the palace on sustainability and climate change concerns before entering politics.
King Charles marked Commonwealth Day on Monday by praising the organisation’s role in bringing people together in a special message to all its members. He addressed the uncertain times the world is facing and asked that people take these divisions as a source of strength to support each other.
The informal British constitution stipulates that the monarch always acts within the government’s advice. And with his geopolitical outlook finely tuned to the issues that Mr Trump has sought to challenge, King Charles will have his work cut out to stay on even terms with the US President.
Planning for the state visit will test the US leader’s apparently fond attitudes to the British royals. Mr Trump is particularly attached to the roots of his Scottish mother and his two trophy golf establishments in Scotland.
The soft power that the UK is relying on from the royal family can only stretch so far. It is up to King Charles to see how far. The government is hoping that Mr Trump’s aggressive lines on Ukraine, Canada (and Greenland) can drop by the wayside at some point. It is also hoping for exemptions from the tariffs that the Trump administration is promising to roll out.
As his wider Commonwealth message indicated, the King is also keen to stress to the US leader that the physical harmony of the planet must also be addressed. With the Earth still stalked by the climate change crisis, the King is said to be seized by the need to remind people that the issue needs addressing. That is a tough sell as Mr Trump promises incentives for his “drill, baby drill” agenda.
Yet the word from Buckingham Palace is that the monarch is determined to play a prominent diplomatic role to show that the institution has relevance and continues to be an asset to the UK.
