The King has issued a poignant appeal to Donald Trump to end the war in Iran and attempted to heal the rift between the US president and Sir Keir Starmer.
In an historic address to both houses of Congress marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, Charles said the strength of the relationship between the UK and the US was that it was “born out of dispute but no less strong for it” and that “we can perhaps agree that we do not always agree”.
The monarch’s speech follows the most difficult period for the special relationship for decades, in which the US president rebuked the Prime Minister for failing to do more to support US strikes against Iran and describing him as “not Winston Churchill”.
Trump has also repeatedly lashed out at America’s Nato allies and threatened to pull out of the alliance, and criticised the British armed forces for “staying back” from frontlines in Afghanistan.
But the King pointedly defended Starmer, UK troops and Nato, namechecking all three during his 20-minute address.
Peacemaker King
As Prince of Wales and now monarch, Charles has been a champion of interfaith dialogue for decades.
It would not have been lost on him that Trump posted earlier this month, in one of his threats to the Tehran regime, that “a whole civilisation will die” unless Iran agreed to his demands.
While the King was never going to directly address these comments, he devoted a passage of his speech to greater understanding between faiths, which will be seen as an appeal for calmer and more considered language around the war in the Middle East.
But he also made clear – in the most diplomatic way possible – that he would like to see Trump end the conflict in Iran once and for all.
Referring to his lifelong devotion to interfaith dialogue, the monarch said: “It is why it is my hope – my prayer – that, in these turbulent times, working together and with our international partners, we can stem the beating of ploughshares into swords.”
Starmer Trump reconciliation
The tensions between the Prime Minister and president – particularly after the pair had become close during the first months of Trump’s second term – have weighed heavily over this visit.
While this is the King’s state visit, he is in the US at the request of his government, headed by Starmer.
We do not know what Charles and Trump discussed in private over tea at the White House, but his speech gives a flavour of how passionately he wants to defend the special relationship – including between the president and PM.
Earlier on Tuesday, giving a short address on the White House lawn, Trump also praised the special relationship and that “we hope it will always remain that way”.
The King repaid the compliment but went further.
He said: “Ours is a partnership born out of dispute, but no less strong for it.”
Both nations were “instinctively like-minded – a product of the common democratic, legal and social traditions in which our governance is rooted to this day” and “time and again, our two countries have always found ways to come together”.
It was the “Special ingredient in our Relationship,” the monarch said, adding: “The story of the United Kingdom and the United States is, at its heart, a story of reconciliation, renewal and remarkable partnership.”
Quoting Starmer, the King said: “Ours is an indispensable partnership. We must not disregard everything that has sustained us for the last eighty years. Instead, we must build on it.”
And in veiled reference to Trump’s threats to withdraw from Nato, the King urged the US to “ignore the clarion calls to become ever more inward-looking”.
The monarch also referred to his “immense pride” at serving in the Royal Navy, praised British armed forces personnel serving alongside US forces, and urged the US to remain in Nato, saying: “The challenges we face are too great for any one Nation to bear alone.
“But in this unpredictable environment, our Alliance cannot rest on past achievements, or assume that foundational principles simply endure. Renewal today starts with security.”
Epstein survivors
In the run up to the visit, survivors of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein appealed to the King and Queen to meet with them.
However, the Palace declined, insisting that they could not do so during the ongoing live police investigation, including into his brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The Queen did meet representatives from four Washington child exploitation and domestic violence charities during the garden party at the UK ambassador’s residence on Monday evening.
Before the King’s Congress speech, Democrat congressman Ro Khanna had suggested to the family of Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre that the monarch would “acknowledge” survivors, according to British ambassador Christian Turner.
Charles did not directly refer to Epstein survivors, but he did make a veiled reference. This is probably as far as he could go, due to the ongoing UK police investigations.
The Epstein issue is also awkward for Trump, given his close association with the sex trafficker.
The monarch said: “In both of our countries, it is the very fact of our vibrant, diverse and free societies that gives us our collective strength, including to support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today.”
Climate change
It would not be a historic speech by the King without a reference to climate change – an issue which Trump has consistently railed against.
The monarch referred to the “disastrously melting ice-caps of the Arctic” and, in a poetic passage, the fact that “millennia before our Nations existed, before any border drawn, the mountains of Scotland and Appalachia were one; a single, continuous range, forged in the ancient collision of continents”.
In what might be an antidote to Trump’s “drill baby drill” refrain, the King praised the “generations of Americans … indigenous, political and civic leaders, people in rural communities and cities alike [who] have all helped to protect and nurture what President Theodore Roosevelt called ‘the glorious heritage’ of this land’s extraordinary natural splendour, on which so much of its prosperity has always depended”.
He added: “Yet even as we celebrate the beauty that surrounds us, our generation must decide how to address the collapse of critical natural systems, which threatens far more than the harmony and essential diversity of Nature. We ignore at our peril the fact that these natural systems – in other words, Nature’s own economy – provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.”
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