King Charles Arrives in Washington for Trump, Facing a Less Civil Congress Than His Mother Did

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Over her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II met with nearly every U.S. president spanning from Dwight Eisenhower to Joe Biden. However, it was during her 1991 meeting with President George H.W. Bush that she made history as the first British monarch to deliver a joint address to the U.S. Congress. 

That 1991 visit was perfectly timed. President George H.W. Bush enjoyed sky-high approval ratings, hitting 76% in Gallup polling that same month, after carefully building an international coalition to secure a swift, successful conflict in the Middle East. Bush and British Prime Minister John Major shared an extremely close working relationship. The U.S. was finalizing negotiations for the tariff-cutting North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and laying the groundwork for what would later become the World Trade Organization. Bush also stayed in regular touch with Mikhail Gorbachev to oversee the orderly dissolution of the Soviet Union. The global economy was emerging from a recession, and Washington was on the cusp of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.

When King Charles III follows his late mother’s lead to become the second British monarch to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, he will do so in a Washington that looks nothing like the one his mother visited for her triumphant 1991 trip, 35 years prior. Donald Trump is grappling with the lowest approval ratings of his second term, with just 36% support in Gallup’s most recent surveys, as he pushes forward with an unpopular war with Iran and strains relations with allies across the globe. Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have clashed over the absence of British troops fighting in Iran. Trump’s inconsistent tariffs, his disdain for NATO, and his uneven support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion have left him largely isolated on the world stage. Vladimir Putin has maintained an unusually steady relationship with Trump, even as former Eastern Bloc nations face heightened security threats. Though unemployment remains low and the stock market is strong, consumer confidence is at a low ebb, and the latest Fox News poll shows Democrats holding an edge over Republicans on economic issues for the first time since 2010.

It is difficult to picture Charles delivering a speech with the same universally praised tone as the one his mother gave. “Some people believe that power grows from the barrel of a gun,” the Queen stated. “That may be true, but history demonstrates that such power never thrives or lasts long. Force, ultimately, is ineffective. We have chosen a better path; our societies are built on mutual agreement, contracts, and consensus.” 

Queen Elizabeth was well-known for her charisma and political savvy. During her first state visit to the U.S. as monarch in 1957, when she met with Eisenhower, she helped defuse tensions between Washington and London over the Suez Canal, even though she was not involved in the Eden government’s missteps of the crisis. Following her final meeting with a U.S. president, Joe Biden noted that the Queen reminded him of his own mother, as she quizzed him on Washington’s assessments of Chinese and Russian leaders and insisted on serving tea herself at Windsor Castle.

“She truly had a lifelong affection for the United States,” shared Sir Christian Turner, the British Ambassador to Washington. “Scotland is the only other place she really took vacations. She made eight trips here for state visits, plus four additional visits.”

Whereas Elizabeth ascended to the throne at age 25, Prince Charles did not take up the role he was born into until he was 73. And while his mother approached questions and suggestions with a gentle demeanor, King Charles is unapologetic about pursuing his policy priorities; during his first meeting with Trump in 2019, the president complained that the then-prince spent the entire 90-minute meeting (scheduled for just 15 minutes) rambling about climate change. This will mark King Charles’ 20th trip to the United States overall. 

Even so, as King Charles embarks on a visit officially tied to the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he is in a one-of-a-kind position to connect with a president who is deeply fascinated by monarchy, and who appears determined to make Washington resemble the grand royal palaces of old Europe.

“Most people likely do not realize that the king travels abroad only on the advice of his government. The decision to proceed with this state visit was actually a recommendation from Keir Starmer’s administration,” Turner explained. “This is not solely about the relationship between the president and the king, or the president and the prime minister. It is far broader and more meaningful than that.”

This helps clarify why, after Trump returned to the White House, Starmer personally delivered the invitation from King Charles (then still prince) for the Trumps to undertake a second state visit — marking the first time a U.S. president has received such a dual honor. Trump, unsurprisingly, accepted and enjoyed his second experience of royal pageantry last year. 

During her 1991 visit, Queen Elizabeth spent 13 days touring Washington D.C., attending a Baltimore Orioles baseball game, hosting a Royal Britannia dinner aboard the royal yacht, traveling to Texas to meet former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson (the widow of the only U.S. president she never met during her reign), and stopping in Kentucky to visit horse breeding operations. The trip served as a personal diplomatic thank-you to Bush 41 for leading a unified global coalition to repel Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, as well as a vote of confidence as the West worked to oversee the collapse of the Soviet Union without risking a nuclear catastrophe. 

King Charles will only spend four days in the United States. His only trip outside of Washington will be a stop in New York, which includes a visit to the 9/11 Memorial, where he will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony alongside Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Whereas his mother held a genuine appreciation for American idealism, King Charles is less fond of the United States, particularly in an era where the era of U.S. global leadership (Pax Americana) feels like a distant memory. His mother’s calls for restraint and warning against seizing power through violent force have never felt more starkly contrasted against the current global landscape.

— With reporting by Brian Bennett

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