Raymond J. de Souza writes that King Charles III's recent visit to Washington was a masterclass in subtle diplomacy, with speeches that brilliantly dispatched Team Trump. The King's addresses to Congress and at a state dinner were a 'smashing success,' though their targets likely missed the finer points.
A Sovereign's Subtlety in an Unsubtle City
A sovereign is required to be subtle, and today's Washington is singularly ill-suited to subtlety or self-awareness. Thus the best moments of King Charles III's visit were likely lost on their targets, but not on the watching world. Rarely has the King had to deliver a speech in such sensitive circumstances, and it was a superlatively smashing success.
For the third time this year, a world leader has punctured the preening presumptions of President Donald Trump, to extravagant laudations from the vast majority of the global population. Prime Minister Mark Carney went first at Davos on trade, and then Pope Leo XIV was next on war and peace, adding for good effect, 'I don't fear the Trump administration.' Fewer fear Trump now than a year ago. The King certainly doesn't.
The Art of the Royal Speech
Every word in any significant speech by the monarch is prepared and approved by senior mandarins in both Whitehall and Buckingham Palace — with the exception of the Christmas address, which is wholly the sovereign's to draft and deliver. The ideal king's speech says nothing noteworthy, but in an uplifting way. Charles was masterful in artfully departing from that tradition to speak to an unfriendly administration in defence of not only the United Kingdom, but his other realms as well.
The Crowning Moment: The HMS Trump Bell
The crowning moment was when the King presented Trump with detritus from a nondescript submarine sent to scrap more than 50 years ago. The sub was the HMS Trump, and the Royal Navy retrieved the bell and polished it up, a gaudy golden bauble with the Trump name on it, like an Albanian casino. Trump received it with the delight of a child with new toy — shiny and sound-making! Trump did not realize that he was being both patronized and ridiculed at the same time, even when the King made fun of his 'readjustments' to the East Wing to build a gaudy golden bauble of a ballroom. Thrilled with his new trinket, Trump lifted the taxes he had previously levied on Americans who import Scotch whisky. Such is the careful calculation of trade policy in Trump's America.
Charles as King of Canada
At the same state dinner, Charles spoke as 'co-host' of the World Cup as King of Canada — a reference surely lost on the president and most of his guests, as Trump 2.0 is hardly aware of American constitutional arrangements, let alone Westminster ones. He made a similar point to Congress, namely that as head of state of both the United Kingdom and Australia, he spoke on behalf of key American security allies in the AUKUS partnership.
A Historical Note
The King spoke of his mother's first visit to Washington as Queen in 1957, something of a repair mission after a policy breach in the Middle East. Then it was Suez, now it is Iran. Both that visit and the next visit in 1959 were made by Elizabeth II as Queen of Canada. The American visits were included amidst longer royal tours of Canada.
Cheerful and Combative
Before Congress, Charles took on, one after the other, the most outrageous offences of Team Trump, dispatching them with the efficiency of the Boxing Day shoot at Sandringham. He was cheerful — and combative. Trump maligns Europe? Charles observed that the first British sovereign to visit America was King George VI in 1939, when the 'forces of fascism' were on the march and it was 'some time before the United States had joined us in the defence of freedom.' That 'us' included Canada.
