Could King Charles’s US visit save the special relationship? — The Global Story

[0:00] Should King Charles travel to the United States for a state visit later this month to save the special relationship? [0:07] Britons are divided. [0:09] Now, under normal circumstances, a state visit by a British monarch to address the American Congress [0:14] and meet with the American president would be utterly uncontroversial. [0:18] Except Donald Trump has said some things like this. [0:22] I look at London where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor. [0:25] You know, unfortunately, Keir is not Winston Churchill. [0:28] And Charles is facing questions at home, too, about the future of the royal family, [0:33] especially after revelations about his brother Andrew's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. [0:39] Andrew denies any wrongdoing. [0:42] From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond. [0:44] And I'm Asma Khalid. [0:46] And welcome to The Global Story on YouTube. [0:53] Daniela, it's so great to have you with us. [0:55] Thank you for joining us. [0:56] Can you introduce yourself for us, please? [0:59] I'm Daniela Ralph and I'm the BBC's senior. [1:02] I work as a correspondent, so it's my job to basically follow the royal family [1:05] on all the ups and downs of what they're doing day to day, wherever that may be. [1:09] Daniela, we're having this conversation in the context of what I would describe [1:15] as a particularly tumultuous moment in the U.S.-U.K. special relationship. [1:22] And I want to understand from you, given how tense the relationship between these two countries has been, [1:28] why is the king going to Washington, D.C. at this particular moment? [1:32] Well, he's going because the relationship is so tense. [1:35] I think it's important to say that the planning for this trip to the United States happened way before the offensive in Iran started. [1:43] So this isn't the case of the king and queen waking up one morning and thinking, oh, I know, we haven't been to America for a little while. [1:48] Let's organize a trip over there. [1:50] I quite fancy a couple of days in. [1:52] A little vacation. [1:52] Yeah, I quite fancy a couple of days in Washington and New York. [1:55] They go because the U.K. government wants them to go. [1:58] It is the U.K. government. [2:00] It is number 10. [2:01] It is a foreign office. [2:02] So it is the Keir Starmer has asked him to go. [2:05] Correct. [2:06] Number 10 and the foreign office look strategically at U.K. relationships around the world [2:11] and decide where they would like to deploy the soft diplomacy of the royal family. [2:15] And it was decided, you know, last year that they would do a return visit after President Trump came to the U.K. in September. [2:22] There was an offer from America, from the U.S., for the king and queen to go there. [2:26] And it was decided that that should happen quite quickly. [2:30] April was put in the diary. [2:31] And that was fixed in. [2:33] There were a number of factors at that point why the trip had to happen then. [2:37] I mean, the reason for the visit is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence. [2:43] Can we just pause on that? [2:44] Because I, as an American, find this such a curiosity that we are celebrating our independence from the Brits and therefore we are inviting the king back. [2:51] Oh, well, bygones are bygones. [2:54] Exactly right. [2:54] I mean, I think that's what that's what Buckingham Palace say. [2:56] That's what the king will say. [2:57] And he'll probably reference it when he's there. [2:59] It's a bit, you know, that's in the past. [3:00] We're all friends. [3:01] Now is the message. [3:02] So, yeah, I know, as strange as it may seem. [3:04] So the theme of the visit is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of independence. [3:09] There are a number of other factors in play as well. [3:11] There is a World Cup in the U.S. [3:12] The visit couldn't clash with that. [3:14] There is a suggestion that the prince and princess of Wales, William and Catherine, may go over during that World Cup period to the U.S. as well. [3:21] So all these things are at play as well as, of course, the diary of President Trump and the politics of America over the next few months. [3:27] So it was felt that really this period of time was the best. [3:31] And it was the best time for the king and queen to go. [3:33] Daniela, can I just check in with you on a little sort of split screen moment I had yesterday because I'm interested to know if you had the same one. [3:41] So I had two sets of notifications on my screen yesterday at almost exactly the same time. [3:48] On the one hand, I had a news notification from Donald Trump saying that Britain needed to go and get its own oil. [3:58] And then almost exactly at the same time. [4:00] I had another one announcing. [4:01] Did you have that? [4:03] And if so, what was your reaction when you saw these two things dropping at the same time? [4:06] I did. [4:07] And it was a brilliant way of just perfectly illustrating the dilemma that the U.K. government and to a degree, Buckingham Palace has had about should we be going on this trip? [4:17] You know, it is a conversation that has been very live in recent weeks, which doesn't often happen in the weeks ahead of a state visit. [4:24] Do you go and visit a president and have a state visit there with all the pomp and ceremony that comes with that? [4:30] When he is being so personally hostile to the country where you are head of state? [4:35] I think ultimately the decision came down to the fact that if they decided not to go, if they decided to pull out of this visit, that is a much more political decision than going in many ways. [4:46] And I think ultimately it's a diplomatic no go. [4:48] You don't pull out of royal visits. [4:50] It's a diplomatic no go. [4:52] It's a that is a big move to suddenly go. [4:54] We're not going. [4:55] We don't like the tone of what the president has said. [4:57] We are pulling back from this. [4:59] The government. [5:00] Ultimately, whatever discomfort and I think that's fair to say Buckingham Palace have got about this trip, the UK government were pretty clear they want the king and queen to go. [5:11] And he could be the king at his most useful during this period of time, especially, of course, when who do you have sitting in the White House, a president who is a monarchist and who a raging monarchist? [5:23] I think it would be fair to say. [5:24] I mean, he certainly does adore the queen. [5:26] And it said so. [5:27] I remember speaking to a former adviser. [5:29] I remember speaking to a former adviser. [5:29] I remember speaking to a former adviser. [5:30] I remember speaking to a former adviser to the White House who said that there are few people Trump sees as a peer. [5:35] Amongst them are Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China and the royals. [5:41] Yeah. [5:41] And, you know, when he was here in September, I was one of the reporters traveling around with the president and the king. [5:47] He kept repeatedly saying, President Trump, what a great man the king is. [5:51] He is what a brilliant person he is. [5:53] You were with President Trump and the king when they last met here in in the UK. [5:59] Trump has been here twice, I believe. [6:01] Right. For for state visits. [6:04] What was the scene like? [6:05] It was at Windsor Castle. [6:07] There were a number of engagements when President Trump came over that were within the castle walls. [6:12] And I think it's important to say it wasn't that they didn't get on. [6:16] I wouldn't say that about them at all. [6:18] It's just they are fundamentally different human beings. [6:22] President Trump, he is bombastic. [6:24] He's overt. [6:25] He's he speaks his mind. [6:26] He he doesn't seem to really sort of think too much. [6:29] But what he's going to say, and he was very keen to lavish praise on a personal level on the king and queen. [6:35] King Charles, on the other hand, what kind of man is he? [6:37] Well, he is quite a quiet person, probably instinctively quite shy. [6:41] I would say he is a restrained human being. [6:43] He's not someone to heap praise on people very openly. [6:46] He is not emotional when they are standing next to each other and interacting. [6:49] And you're observing that as I was. [6:52] You can just get a sense of how they are two very different human beings. [6:55] But the thing with the king to remember is that the head of state, the monarch here, [6:59] in the UK, is supposed to be an apolitical figure. [7:02] He's not a political figure. [7:03] He is a constitutional monarch there to represent the government. [7:08] It is not for him to make personal judgments on individuals. [7:12] It is his job to do what the government want him to do. [7:15] Well, let's have a little trot through some of the kind of moments of tension that have presented themselves [7:23] since Donald Trump came back to the White House, because there have been quite a few of them. [7:27] Back in February 2025, Donald Trump, [7:29] he's going to be back in the White House very long at that point. [7:32] On the subject of tariffs, he said the United Kingdom is out of line on its trading relationship [7:39] with the United States. [7:41] And then fast forward a little bit to September 2025. [7:45] I remember this one well, this was at the United Nations where he publicly reprimanded [7:50] and scolded Europe, said that their countries were going to hell and singled out the mayor [7:56] of London, Sadiq Khan. [7:57] I look at London. [7:58] You have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor. [8:02] And it's been so changed, so changed. [8:06] Now they want to go to Sharia law. [8:10] But you're in a different country. [8:12] You can't do that. [8:13] In that same month, September 2025, he was talking about the so-called special relationship. [8:17] He said that the United Kingdom is no longer a priority ally and the UK needs to stand on its own two feet. [8:25] In January 2026, there's Chagos. [8:27] Chagos Islands, yes. [8:28] The president singled out the deal for the UK [8:31] to hand the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius. [8:34] He has been repeatedly frustrated with what he views as the United Kingdom's decision [8:40] to give those islands up, which he thinks are important for national security purposes. [8:44] Now in that same month, and I'd like to ask you about this one in particular, Daniela, [8:49] because Donald Trump told Fox News he was critical of the role of NATO troops. [8:55] In particular, he said, we've never needed them. [8:58] We've never really asked anything of them. [9:01] And he said of UK troops, they'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan and they did, [9:07] but they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines. [9:11] What was the blowback, if any, that you encountered from the royal family about those comments about the military? [9:17] There was definite blowback about that one particular comment. [9:20] The implication was that somehow they hadn't quite been brave enough in Afghanistan, [9:24] hadn't sort of been courageous enough, hadn't been the same as the Americans. [9:29] That caused an absolute fury. [9:31] There was an absolute fury behind the scenes, particularly among the King's closest advisors [9:36] and the King himself at Buckingham Palace. [9:38] You know, you have to remember that the King is the head of the armed forces in the UK. [9:42] And although they would not openly or on the record get involved in contradicting what [9:48] President Trump had said or in any way publicly, directly admonishing him, they made it very [9:54] clear through back channels and through other conversations that were had that that was [10:00] something that they were deeply unhappy with. [10:01] And couldn't and did not want to hear again. [10:04] And actually, the president's mood just a couple of days later softened in some of his social media posts about the role of Britain. [10:11] And he went on to praise British soldiers. [10:14] Nonetheless, though, the president's mood hasn't softened when it comes to the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, [10:19] because he went on to say that he's no Winston Churchill. [10:21] He has been repeatedly very critical of Starmer. [10:24] Well, factually, it is technically true. [10:26] He is not Winston Churchill. [10:27] True, true. [10:29] Very valid point. [10:30] But I mean, he's gone on to say that he's not Winston Churchill. [10:31] But he's gone on to say, and I think you've seen this more so even with now the U.S. [10:35] has real war in Iran, he has been frustrated that he feels the U.K. [10:39] has not helped and been this partner and ally that he feels like the United States is due. [10:45] This is a chance in a way to get a little bit inside President Trump's mind and how does he view things. [10:52] And what strikes me, I think, is he sees, I think probably wrongly, the U.K. [10:58] royal family as something that sits completely apart from the rest of the country. [11:02] So it's almost as if when he's criticizing the, criticizing the prime minister, he's criticizing the British armed forces, the mayor of London, British society in general, that somehow in his own mind, he seems to be able to separate that from the royal family itself. [11:19] He doesn't seem to almost register that they represent all of those things here in the U.K. [11:25] And they sit very separately in his mind. [11:28] Can I just pause on something you said earlier? [11:30] You had mentioned that. [11:32] The role of the royal family is to be apolitical. [11:35] And I don't really understand that if they're supposed to be apolitical, how they can at the same time be diplomats for the British government. [11:42] I suppose in apolitical, what you're saying is that they are not party political. [11:46] They wouldn't get involved in party political campaigns here. [11:50] They wouldn't get involved in election time. [11:52] They wouldn't say what they think about what a particular government or a particular party is doing around policy. [12:02] They would see themselves as a representation of brand U.K., I suppose, and wanting to support the U.K. [12:09] whatever government was representing it. [12:11] That is what the king's role is as a constitutional monarch. [12:14] But that isn't to say that if he feels there are moments when the U.K. should be defended or supported, then he would say something. [12:23] So he may make his point by not being critical of his host, but by perhaps emphasizing a particular point about the U.K. he will want to say something. [12:28] But that's a different story. [12:29] That's a different story. [12:30] Thank you. [12:31] Thank you, Michelle. [12:32] Thank you. [12:32] made. Daniela, Asma and I were talking earlier on, the Brits on the team were saying that the [12:37] royal family have centuries of experience in being, not saying anything political at all. [12:45] Would you concur with that assessment? Oh yeah, 100%. They are absolutely gifted [12:50] at almost going there, but not quite, which could be quite frustrating when you're reporting on them [12:56] sometimes because you think, oh, is this going to be something amazing and quite controversial [12:59] they're going to say here? And then they sort of pull it back at the last moment. Yeah, they are, [13:04] as you say, they are experts at sort of saying something without upsetting anyone and not really [13:11] saying anything, if that makes sense at all. But yet it can have power and influence, [13:16] even though it is perhaps very careful in the way it's worded and the way it lands. [13:22] In prepping for this episode, we went back to the 1991 speech that the Queen had given to Congress. [13:28] Your Congress. [13:30] And saw snippets of that where she spoke, it seemed about fairly mundane common values, [13:39] things like democracy. But those big shared values have become increasingly polarized and [13:46] partisan debate issues in the United States. And I am very curious to see how the King navigates [13:52] the very changed environment that American politics are in. [13:56] Okay, so imagine the following hypothesis. If King Charles, [14:00] went to Washington, DC, and stood in front of Congress and gave a speech about democracy, [14:05] would that be considered to be provocative in some way? [14:09] I think it would depend what he says. But I just imagine that there are, that we are living in such [14:17] a far more polarized political climate in the United States, in which the idea of some of the [14:23] common shared values might translate really differently in the year 2026. And just given our [14:29] American political debates. [14:30] Just just just on that, he will want to make a point, I think, but it's how he does it diplomatically. [14:37] And that is where the soft royal diplomacy comes in. He's not going to do it by saying, President [14:42] Trump, I really hated what you said about the armed forces. I don't like how you talk about our [14:46] Prime Minister. Instead, he will say, you know, it is very important that we work together, both our [14:52] governments need to be aligned at a bumpy time in global politics. You know, it is the relationship, [14:58] the transatlantic special relationship needs to stay. [15:00] He will use that kind of language, I think, as opposed to direct criticism. [15:06] Daniela, how would you describe British attitudes right now to the royal family? And how have they been [15:13] changing recently? [15:14] I think the popularity of the royal family has been in a slow decline, not helped, as you could imagine, [15:22] by the situation around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the revelations that have emerged around his [15:27] relationship with the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. [15:31] Now, that has been incredibly damaging for the royal family, for its reputation, and for how it is viewed [15:39] by the public. And in some of the more recent polling, you can see that some of the numbers show that there is [15:45] a little bit more dislike and concern about the royal family and what it's there for. [15:51] But what there hasn't been is a monumental fall-off of numbers. [15:55] And I think that is because, as Tristan has said there, we exist here in the UK where you have small [16:01] number of people who are ardent Republicans, a small number of people who are fervent monarchists. [16:06] In the middle, you have a sort of British shoulder shrug about the royal family by a vast amount of [16:12] people who are kind of like, you know, I don't really care enough about it to think we shouldn't [16:16] have it, but I'm not going to be, you know, standing outside the railings of Buckingham Palace, [16:21] you know, watching for the king and queen to come and go. So there is a sort of indifference in the [16:25] middle, but it is important that those indifferent people who kind of quite like the monarchy around [16:30] a big event and a big occasion, stay relatively loyal and relatively happily indifferent. And I [16:36] think the problem with the situation around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, it has caused a lot of people [16:40] to question, well, what's the royal family for? How transparent is it? How do we know what's going [16:45] on? Who's protecting them? People are a little bit more sceptical and asking a few more questions. [16:51] And that is a slightly difficult situation for the royal family. [16:55] Danielle, you mentioned Andrew and his relationship with Epstein, [16:58] and the king will be coming to work. [17:00] Washington, D.C., in the context of a really live debate around the Epstein files. You know, [17:07] we talked about him giving a speech to Congress. Presumably, there will be members of Congress there [17:12] who want to see more transparency around the Epstein files, some who have wanted to see Andrew, [17:17] for example, testify, right? In Congress, you have a Congressman Ro Khanna of California, [17:22] who's been really leading this initiative in some ways, who I believe wrote a letter, [17:26] the BBC said, encouraging the king to meet with some of the [17:30] Epstein victims when he comes to the United States. Do you have any sense of how that might [17:35] factor into the King's visit? Yeah, I mean, I think perhaps that address to Congress will be [17:40] one of the more uncomfortable moments for the King during his trip to America. Because as you say, [17:45] there will be lawmakers, politicians listening to the King's speech, who have also called on [17:51] his younger brother to come to the States and to give evidence to Congress about his relationship [17:55] with Jeffrey Epstein. It is an awkward moment. But I've spoken to a number of people now, [18:00] who've been involved in planning the trip and around Buckingham Palace about whether in that [18:05] speech, will there be any reference even mildly to the situation and the fallout from the Epstein [18:14] files in particular, and the stories of victims and support for victims? I am told that won't [18:19] happen. And that is because here in the UK, there is a live legal process. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, [18:25] the King's brother, was arrested in February. There is still an ongoing police investigation [18:30] in the UK. And there is still an ongoing police investigation in the UK. And there is still an [18:30] ongoing police investigation in the UK. And there is still an ongoing police investigation in the UK. [18:30] to his behaviour in public office when he was a UK trade envoy, that is very much an active police [18:36] investigation. And those around the royal family do not want to say anything that could in any way [18:43] in their view and on their legal advice, in any way cause a problem for the wider police [18:48] investigations. Danielle, it's now been roughly 20 years since a royal has come to Washington DC [18:57] for a proper royal visit. [18:59] I believe the Queen came in 2007. And I want you to help us understand what the role is of the royal [19:09] family, specifically in the context of the United States. We've been talking about the King coming [19:14] at this moment of a really tense relationship between the US and the UK. What's the circumstances [19:20] of when they've come in the past? And have there been similarly tense moments when these trips were [19:25] made? Yeah, if you do a dip into the Royal Archive, you can see that there have been [19:31] other moments when the royal family came to America and was used as a means of perhaps shoring up a [19:39] slightly tricky bumpy relationship at the time of their visit. There was the visit that the late [19:46] Queen, Queen Elizabeth made with her father in 1939, before the Second World War, that was seen [19:52] very much as trying to really strengthen the alliance between the UK and the US during that [19:58] period. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:01] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:01] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:01] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:02] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:02] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:03] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:03] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:04] to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog to the UK. That was referred to as a trip of hot dog [20:04] that visit, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the royal family that were visiting to his [20:10] private home in New York and gave them their first taste of hot dogs. [20:15] Ooh, did they like it? That's the question. [20:17] Who wouldn't want, who wouldn't like a hot dog? [20:21] The reports from The Times that the king had two hot dogs and a beer and that Princess [20:25] Elizabeth absolutely loved having a hot dog. And it became just one of those moments during [20:29] a more serious-minded trip that just somehow seemed to capture the public attention. [20:35] And this was prior to the United States entrance, you're saying, into World War II. [20:39] And was the mission of the trip to encourage the United States to join forces? [20:45] I think, I mean, there would have been in the background, of course, [20:48] there would have been. But I think it was more about just shoring up that relationship. So [20:53] when that moment came, there was an influence that the UK could perhaps exert. [20:57] I feel like I ought to ask the American [21:00] Orientalist. [21:00] Yeah, I think that's a really good question. And that is that the king's younger son, Harry, [21:05] lives in the United States. My understanding from the reports that we've read is that the [21:10] king has only met his granddaughters at one time before. And I am curious if he's going to meet his [21:19] son while he's there. I mean, I imagine there is not just the diplomatic dance he has to [21:23] have on a very grand scale when we're talking about Trump and Congress, [21:26] but there's the diplomatic family dance he has to navigate. [21:30] I think on a personal level, as a human being, a lot of people will maybe be thinking that, [21:37] if you're somebody whose family lives in a different country, you're going to that country, [21:43] you're going to visit that country to do some work. Would you not have found time in your [21:48] schedule to either go and visit them or for them to come and visit you? [21:51] It gives you a flavour of the tension that still surrounds a relationship between father and son and [21:59] also how the royal family doesn't really quite operate like other families as well. So if you're [22:05] looking at it from a, you know, for want of a better phrase, a normal human being perspective, [22:09] you think, well, of course, you'd build in a couple of extra days, you'd go and see Harry [22:12] and Meghan in California, you get Harry to come and see you in DC. That isn't going to be happening [22:17] because there is still an immense lack of trust in the relationship. [22:21] I mean, it strikes me that when King Charles goes to Washington, DC, he's treading a bit of a tight [22:29] rope. What is his... I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. [22:29] I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. What is his toughest task here? [22:32] Is it saving the so-called special relationship or saving the image of the monarchy back home in [22:39] Britain? [22:39] I think it's a bit of both. And in addition to try and actually restrain his own personal views in [22:46] the situation he's going to find himself in, because the King is someone who is, although he [22:51] is quite a quiet, restrained character, he knows what he thinks and he will not at all like the [22:58] tone that Donald Trump might be. [22:59] Yeah. [22:59] has used to talk about the prime minister and the uk more generally in in recent months but he is [23:06] going to have to find a way of parking those personal feelings he is very much doing a little [23:11] bit of i suppose a bit of mediation you could argue a bit of therapy work the king for um both [23:18] the president and the prime minister to try and see if despite the difficulties despite the [23:23] differences in approach we can get that relationship back on an even keel well thank you [23:27] yeah it's been a real pleasure speaking with you thank you so much danielle it's been great [23:32] no problem at all anytime that's it for our show today thanks for tuning in and if you [23:36] enjoyed our episode i've got to mention that our show the global story is also available as [23:41] an audio podcast you can find us every weekday wherever you listen to your favorite shows