The state visit has already revealed how much Trump needs King Charles ...Middle East

In his wildest dreams, neither King Charles nor the Prime Minister are likely to have imagined that the monarch’s state visit to the United States would begin just hours after Donald Trump told American television viewers that he is neither a rapist nor a paedophile.

But the path of Trump’s presidency is always unpredictable. So, greeting the King and Queen at the White House in glorious spring sunshine on Monday afternoon, the US leader was desperate for royal assistance in changing the national conversation.

With a limited schedule of events after the royal jet’s touchdown at Andrews Air Force Base, everything passed off according to plan. There were warm smiles on display as the President and First Lady welcomed the royal couple to the South Portico of the White House for an informal “greeting” that will be supplanted on Tuesday morning by a pageantry-infused official arrival ceremony on the South Lawn.

The White House reporting pool noted in dispatches that reporters were kept at a distance from the first couple and their guests. “The King and President exchanged some remarks that could not be heard”, wrote pool reporter Brittany Gibson of the website Axios. “Print and radio reporters were separated from the stills [photographers] (still further away from the action)” she noted drily.

Viewers of the arrival, however, widely noted Trump’s efforts to unleash what has become known as his “power handshake” on the King. But the monarch proved more than equal to the president’s lengthy and muscular grip that sometimes included efforts to squeeze his guest’s hand into submission.

Lip readers suggested that Trump made efforts to direct the King’s gaze towards the construction site where his new ballroom is being built, and where the First Lady’s East Wing no longer stands. The King smiled gently and offered a comment that may, or may not, have been congratulatory.

Inside the building, Trump showed his guests the view from the Green Room where tea was served. Pooled images showed the King and Queen locked in separate conversations with Trump and the First Lady respectively.

The foursome then headed to the South Lawn where an animated conversation – again out of microphone range – appeared to show the King hailing the design of a new beehive that was recently created as a replica of the White House. In the only audible comments of the visit, a White House chef told the royal couple that all guests at Tuesday night’s State Dinner will receive a jar of White House honey to take home with them.

It will, of course, take more than that to sweeten the tensions that have soured the bilateral relationship, and the real test of the State Visit is yet to come. On Tuesday the King will make a speech to a joint session of Congress, the most substantive remarks he is due make in Washington, and the city will be agog to hear the cadences he uses to describe the current state of play.

On Tuesday night he will then proffer a toast of thanks to Trump at the state dinner, following another moment of possible jeopardy when the president makes his own remarks.

But after the drama of Saturday night’s attempted attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner gave rise to fresh attention to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, thanks to the “manifesto” the alleged gunman distributed to family members, Trump may now seek to bask in the timely, reflected glory of their majesties’ presence in the White House.

As the King and Queen hosted a garden party for 650 guests at the British Ambassador’s residence, which sits adjacent to the Vice President’s home on Washington’s Embassy Row, reporters were keeping a close eye on Trump’s social media feed for any fresh expression of anti-Starmer sentiment.

That none was forthcoming suggests that efforts to persuade Trump to button his lip during the four day state visit at least passed the first hurdle. But if a week is a long time in politics, for the bilateral relationship the next three days could be an eternity.

Invitees at the garden party (where sandwiches were offered featuring Scottish Smoked Salmon with a lemon-pepper butter or British beef with horseradish) came from across the political, diplomatic and social spectrum. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, seemed almost struck dumb when the King was introduced to him. Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas raced to post pictures of himself with the monarch on his social media feed.

For a country celebrating the 250th anniversary of its decision to break away from the UK, and with “No Kings” protests providing a regular ongoing commentary on the Trump presidency, it’s an odd look to see politicians from both parties eager to tie themselves to the actual King’s apron strings.

But for the UK’s head of state, modest opportunity may be knocking to nudge a beleaguered Trump into putting the relationship with London on a more positive trajectory.

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