King Charles III couldn't resist a joke about America's colonial past while dining with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump this week. Charles and Queen Camilla visited the White House on Tuesday for a state dinner, where they enjoyed a French-influenced menu consisting of a garden vegetable velouté and Dover sole meunière, among other dishes. The king appeared to be in a jovial mood throughout the evening, even offering a tongue-in-cheek retort at one of Trump's headline-making comments before an audience that included Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The King's Wit
“You recently commented, Mr. President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German,” he proclaimed. “Dare I say that, if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French!” Charles's quip was a nod to Britain's role in defeating France during the Seven Years' War, which lasted from 1756 to 1763. It also came in response to a comment Trump made to European leaders earlier this year about World War II. Appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, Trump insisted that without the U.S.'s intervention in the war, “You’d be speaking German and a little Japanese.”
Additional Humor
Elsewhere in his speech, Charles also cracked a joke about Trump's decision to demolish the White House's East Wing to make way for a $400 million ballroom. Those controversial plans have divided lawmakers once again in the wake of last Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner, where a shooter opened fire with the alleged intention of assassinating the president.
Omitted Topics
Despite Charles's light digs at Trump, he notably steered clear of a more contentious subject related to the president during his visit. In an interview with HuffPost, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said he “fully expected” Charles to acknowledge the survivors of late financier Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring during his speech to Congress on Tuesday. Ultimately, the king — whose own brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, is tied up in the Epstein scandal — said nothing.
Charles and Camilla departed Washington, D.C. for New York early Wednesday, where they met briefly with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and laid flowers at the edge of the city's memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 67 of whom were British.
