Can the King handle Trump?
4/27/202623 min
King Charles is about to travel to Washington to visit President Trump. The brief? Fix the strained relationship. No pressure!
Can royal diplomacy steady relations? Will the trip be awkward given Trump's recent words on Starmer, Chagos, The Falklands, and Canada? Does the King have what it takes to navigate such a diplomatic minefield?
Elsewhere, Morgan McSweeney will appear before MPs tomorrow to explain his actions relating to the appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States. Given he's already said he doesn't recognise portrayals of himself in the media, is he going to come out swinging?
Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJames Heale· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to Coffee House. I'm James Heale.
Tim Shipman· Host0:07
And I'm Tim Shipman.
James Heale· Host0:08
So Tim, the King's going to be in America this week, obviously coming just days after the attempted assassination of Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Tim Shipman· Host0:15
Well, we're in the wrong place, aren't we? And all the whole British press pack has been Washington DC, half of them have been at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
James Heale· Host0:23
Yes.
Tim Shipman· Host0:23
And that huge drama of shootings, but actually I think this might be the best thing that's happened to this state visit. It enabled the Palace and Downing Street to sort of come out and express sympathy with President Trump. It's allowed Trump to come out and say, "Ah, very brave of the King still to come," and, you know, there was no question- [laughs] ... of this, uh, trip being canceled. But I think it's created a sort of slight sense of good mood. Um, it allowed Starmer to phone up Trump and say, you know, um, "Sorry about yet another assassination attempt, Mr. President. Uh, we might have had our differences, but they don't go that far."
James Heale· Host1:01
Yes, I did very much enjoy Trump comparing himself to Lincoln in terms of only the best presidents get multiple assassination attempts.
Tim Shipman· Host1:06
Well, there we go.
James Heale· Host1:07
And of course, there's a bit of history here, which is 1976 when the Queen, the late Queen, visited just after Ford's assassination attempt. Uh, and I think, yeah, obviously given all the tensions we've seen around the Falcons most recently, but also other different flashpoints such as Ukraine and Iran most noticeably, uh, that could potentially be something which affects Trump's move and the whole tenor of the trip. Uh, we've seen reports of Christian Turner, the UK ambassador, saying, "Keep calm and carry on," to staff at the embassy.