The relationship between the UK and America remains “under great strain” because the Trump administration is focused on enforcing its world view rather than acting on common values shared with Britain, a former ambassador to Washington has warned.
Sir David Manning, who served as Britain’s top diplomat to America during the Iraq War, said the centrepiece speech given by King Charles to Congress on Tuesday had been an opportunity to remind both the US President and a wider American audience of the depth of the joint commitment on both sides of the Atlantic to the defence of democratic values.
In his historic address to the US House of Representatives, the monarch went out of his way repeatedly to emphasise and praise the historic bond between Britain and the US, as well as putting current struggles to the fore. He called for “unyielding resolve” in supporting Ukraine to achieve a “truly just and last peace” in the war foisted upon it by Moscow.
However, in what was widely interpreted as a subtle petition to Donald Trump to refocus on Washington’s traditional but troubled alliance with Europe, and once more adopt a muscular defence of Western liberal values, the King added: “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.”
“Trump’s approach is transactional, not values-based”
Sir David, who has experience of dealing with high-stakes meetings between British and American leaders – he attended a crucial Oval Office discussion between Tony Blair and George W Bush prior to the Iraq invasion in 2003 – said the King was addressing a situation where it can no longer be taken for granted that London and Washington share a view of the world.
He told The i Paper: “The bilateral relationship is currently under great strain. We’ve had plenty of ups and downs over the years but basically we shared a common outlook. And we’ve shared values that underpinned that outlook, whatever our differences on specific issues.
“That’s not the case with the Trump administration, whether it’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the attempted takeover of Greenland, the war with Iran or the imposition of tariffs. Trump’s approach is transactional, not values-based.”
King Charles is applauded by Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson as he addresses Congress (Photo: /Kylie Cooper/Pool/Reuters)The four-day stateside visit by the monarch and Queen Camilla – ostensibly to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence from its status as a British colony – has been billed as an opportunity for London to try and draw a line under weeks of transatlantic political turbulence.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly expressed discontent with Britain in general, and Sir Keir Starmer in particular, with a series of barbs aimed at the UK’s military capabilities and the Prime Minister’s personal resolve.
‘The King is a highly accomplished diplomat’
Salving those tensions is a role which several diplomatic observers point out is uniquely suitable for the King, who is required by convention to separate himself from day-to-day transactions between the two governments but is nonetheless a valuable tool for the UK to convey messages that would risk riling a US audience if delivered by a politician.
Sir David said the monarch was a “highly accomplished diplomat” serving as an indispensable lever for the British Government to try to stabilise its rocky relationship with the White House, not least by seeking to remind Americans of the relevance of past struggles to present-day challenges posed by an expansionist Russia and its anti-democratic allies.
Donald and Melania Trump host the King and Queen during the state dinner at the White House (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP)Speaking shortly before the set-piece address to a joint session of Congress, during which the monarch received 12 separate ovations, Sir David said: “The King’s speech to Congress is an important opportunity to remind the President, the Congress and a wider American audience how important our joint commitment to the defence of democratic values has been since the Second World War, and how important that commitment remains when those values are threatened by Putin and other despots.”
“The King is a highly accomplished diplomat, someone the President has repeatedly said he admires. His visit is an opportunity to try to stabilise the bilateral relationship when it’s badly strained, providing a better, less highly charged context for discussing our current policy differences with Trump and his entourage.”
Charles ‘reaching out to ordinary Americans’
The King’s Congress speech – only the second delivered by a British monarch – and a later joke-sprinkled address to a state banquet on Tuesday night were being interpreted widely on Wednesday as having “done the job” in terms of at least stabilising Anglo-American relations, and potentially creating a space for Downing Street to begin to mend transatlantic fences.
Nonetheless, for all the bonhomie generated in Washington there is bound to be realism in London that a notoriously unpredictable President could revert to his prior sense of resentment at perceived British and European shortcomings in spheres from Iran to freedom of speech.
Sir David said it was important to recognise that the King’s visit, for all its pomp and circumstance, was as much an opportunity to catch the attention of ordinary Americans as addressing the Trump administration.
“The state visit is about relations between the two countries, not just at a political level but people to people – in all its varied facets from trade and investment to the arts and tourism,” he said.
“There’ll be a lot of Americans out there who value that, and the shared values that have unpinned it. The speech is a chance to signal that we still believe passionately in those values and hope the Americans will remain committed to them too.”
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