He pulled it off masterfully. Every time he stuck the knife in, he smiled slightly and looked pointedly out into the audience, then issued the attack. Over and over again, King Charles stood before both Houses of Congress and made the case. He made it for Ukraine, for Nato, for multiculturalism, for the environment. For the most important lesson of all: the restraint of executive power.
“The US Supreme Court Historical Society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789,” he said, “not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances.”
There was a smattering of applause on the Democrat side, at which point he glanced up at the audience and looked at them meaningfully, as if to say, ‘Yes I am making the point you think I am. You have a system which is supposed to prevent people like Trump creating cults of personality and you don’t seem to be doing anything about it.’ Then there was a standing ovation.
“In both of our countries,” the King said, “it is the very fact of our vibrant, diverse and free societies that gives us our collective strength.” Over and over again, he took aim at the Maga movement. On its policies, its tone, its ideology, and the basic nativist assumptions that hold it together.
Charles is very good at this. The speech was pitch-perfect. Everything stayed just on the right side of explicit, preventing it from becoming too embarrassing to his host, but it was carefully written to make sure the message was obvious to all concerned.
The King will have been pleased with it. The UK Government will pat itself on the back and congratulate itself for refusing to cancel the visit. Progressives at home will say how strange it feels to celebrate a king. And none of it will make the slightest bit of difference. It will change nothing. It will alter nothing.
All it will have done is to convince us, once again, that we have a useful role trying to influence the US when the most useful thing we can do is to ostracise it, and prepare ourselves – with speed and urgency – for a world without it.
Even as Charles spoke, liberal norms crumbled around him. Yesterday, as the King smiled for the camera, US authorities leveled absurd trumped-up charges against former FBI director James Comey on the basis of an Instagram post featuring an image of seashells. It appears to be the second attempt to prosecute him in revenge for his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, the US State Department published images of a proposed US passport being released as part of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence – featuring Donald Trump’s face. It looks like the product of any old humdrum tinpot dictatorship in Central America or the Middle East, the unmistakable tell-tale aesthetic of tyrant-kitsch.
None of Charles’s messages get through to Trump because he is too venal to comprehend them. None get through to his entourage because they couldn’t care less. Do we honestly believe that Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s Cabinet coterie, is going to give up a lifetime of far-right activism because the King issued some subtle criticisms in an address to Congress? Obviously not.
For years, the British political class has tried to convince itself that it held some sort of authoritative senatorial relationship with the US – that it could be the wise old Greek to their thrusting young Roman, or Alfred to their Batman.
It was never really true. The public has never fallen for it. It is a fantasy dreamed up by those whom it flatters. Even during the tightest moments of UK-US co-operation, such as that between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, or George Bush and Tony Blair, Britain had limited influence.
This fantasy was once merely embarrassing. It is now pernicious. The US is a rogue state. Just weeks ago it was threatening genocide against Iran. This is already being forgotten, as if it never happened. But it did happen. It was said. It cannot be forgiven or accepted.
Immigrants are rounded up and thrown in camps. Some who criticise the regime are arrested. Racism is normalised and even celebrated. Public health initiatives are mutilated by a conspiracy theorist. War, violence and strength are worshipped, while kindness and gentleness are mocked. We cannot validate this regime. We must not launder its reputation.
The royal visit is ultimately a political trade. Britain gets to try to fix the relationship with the US through a high-value intermediary. Trump gets the bauble. This is what he likes. He likes shiny glowy things: gold decoration, Nobel Prizes, imaginary medals from sports organisations, a place on the winner’s platform next to athletes. That’s what the Royal Family is to him, a shiny glowy thing in which he can admire his reflection.
It is precisely because Trump values the Royal Family that this is our main mechanism against him. A cancelled royal visit would have demonstrated, with conviction, that America had now entered the arena of the socially shunned. That something really fundamental had changed. That there were prices to be paid for its descent into madness and horror. Instead we have stated that you can threaten genocide and all you’ll get is a subtly telling-off, but nothing so obvious it would embarrass you.
For Britain, a cancelled visit might have finally forced us to work towards a defence and security posture which can function without US support. This will be extremely expensive, laborious and time-consuming, which is why it should have started in 2016, and failing that in 2024. But given that these opportunities were not taken it can damn well start now.
As satisfying as they might be, Charles’s well-judged criticisms are not a demonstration of our influence. They are an updated version of the old myth we’ve always told ourselves about British influence. It is a fantasy, which keeps us trapped in a relationship of one-sided dependency with a sociopath.
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