{"id":2597442,"date":"2026-05-01T05:34:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/king-charles-iii-visits-us-as-starmer-weakens-the-special-relationship\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T05:39:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:39:00","slug":"king-charles-iii-visits-us-as-starmer-weakens-the-special-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/king-charles-iii-visits-us-as-starmer-weakens-the-special-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles III visits US as Starmer weakens the special relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fking-charles-iii-visits-us-as-starmer-weakens-the-special-relationship%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2597442&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>After President Trump and British royal leaders kept up a polished show of unity during the state visit, the piece argues that the real test is whether \u201csoft power\u201d is backed by serious military and political commitment. It describes how the VIP-configured Airbus carrying King Charles III and Queen Camilla proceeded from Joint Base Andrews to Bermuda, while the broader question remained: is Britain still willing and able to support the United States when it matters most?<\/p>\n<p>The article says Britain\u2019s Labor government under Prime minister Keir Starmer signaled limits on cooperation, particularly regarding the Iran conflict.It claims Starmer did not allow a Royal Air Force symbolic role when American and Israeli jets struck Iran, and instead reportedly blocked offensive strikes launching from British bases on legal grounds. while britain is saeid to have taken a \u201cdefensive\u201d posture-sharing intelligence, intercepting drones, and sending troops to garrison Bahrain-the article argues that Britain\u2019s naval and broader military capacity has eroded, leaving it unable to match U.S. expectations.<\/p>\n<p>In the background, it cites leaked U.S. planning that contemplated consequences for NATO allies not supporting American actions,including reconsidering U.S.recognition of certain British-linked territories. The piece uses this context to frame Charles and Camilla\u2019s public diplomacy-bees, ceremonies, speeches, and carefully managed charm-as part of an effort to shore up the \u201cSpecial Relationship\u201d at a time of British economic stress and shrinking defense capability.<\/p>\n<p>The article then contrasts the ceremony with hard realities: it points to declines in the size of Britain\u2019s armed forces and argues that budget priorities-pensions,healthcare,education,and debt servicing-constrain the ability to renew defense.It suggests Labour faces damaging tradeoffs in meeting NATO targets, and notes that Starmer has been slow to commit to long-term plans. It also argues that British influence abroad has weakened relative to other actors in the region.<\/p>\n<p>it portrays the visit\u2019s pageantry-joint speeches, state dinners, and diplomatic symbolism-as an attempt by a financially and militarily strained Britain to preserve influence with Washington, even as public sentiment and domestic constraints increasingly limit support for further military involvement.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p>The VIP-configured Airbus took off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on the afternoon of April 28, bound for Bermuda. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/king-charles-iii\/\">King Charles III<\/a> and Queen Camilla had kept calm and carried on.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4549816\/left-wing-political-violence-problem\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>America\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >left-wing political violence problem<\/a> cannot be met with denial<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/videos\/4537693\/inside-scoop-jim-antle-un-reparations-drinking-america-in-space\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Inside Scoop: UN calls for reparations, drinking at all time low, what\u2019s next for America in space<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/videos\/4511488\/inside-scoop-jim-antle-democrat-president-gop-2028-dc-crime-cover-up\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Inside Scoop: Democratic Party problems, GOP road to 2028, and DC crime cover-up<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>After the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4543512\/terror-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner\/\">chaos of the attempted assassination<\/a> of President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a> at the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/white-house-correspondents-dinner\/\">White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner <\/a>on April 25, they had conjured a spectacle of unity. They had reciprocated the 21-gun salute and the congressional ovations with charm and compliments. The effusions of mutual affection were genuine affirmations of the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/4547404\/king-charles-leveraged-history-win-trump-favor\/\">historical affinity<\/a> of America and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/great-britain\/\">Britain<\/a>. But could the pomp match the circumstance?<\/p>\n<p>Soft power is nothing without the hard stuff. The second <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/trump-administration\/\">Trump administration<\/a> doubts that Britain is still willing or able to give political and military support to the U.S. In Britain, Sir <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/keir-starmer\/\">Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s Labour government strains to talk the walk of trans-Atlantic amity, but its actions suggest distrust and incapacity. When American and Israeli jets attacked <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran\/\">Iran<\/a> on Feb. 28, Starmer did not send a symbolic contingent from the Royal Air Force. He reportedly blocked American planes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russia-quiet-on-saving-iran-as-trump-weighs-attacking-tehran\/\" title=\"Russia quiet on saving ... as Trump weighs attac... Tehran\">launching offensive strikes<\/a> from British bases on grounds of international law.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump in the White House\u2019s Rose Garden with Britain\u2019s King Charles III, Queen Camilla, and first lady Melania Trump, April 28, 2026. (Alex Brandon \/ AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe war, Starmer said, was \u201cnot our war.\u201d Though the Iranian regime had launched some 20 terrorist plots in Britain, joining America was not in Britain\u2019s \u201cnational interest.\u201d Starmer and his ministers defined the national interest in purely domestic and economic terms. When Labour won the 2024 elections, the party inherited a stalled economy and a state on the verge of bankruptcy. British consumers already pay some of Europe\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nolte-back-domestic-drilling-or-shut-up-about-opposing-putin\/\" title=\"Nolte: Back Domestic Drilling or Shut Up About Opposing Putin\">highest energy prices<\/a>, and Britain imports most of its energy and much of its food. The International Monetary Fund warns that if energy prices stay high, Britain will have the highest <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/inflation\/\">inflation<\/a> rate and the lowest growth rate among the G7 economies.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Starmer ceded to American pressure by committing to what he called a \u201cdefensive\u201d role. American bombers and transporters now launch attacks from British bases. Britain shares intelligence with the U.S., sends jets to intercept Iranian drones, and sent troops to garrison Bahrain. But Britain\u2019s once-legendary Royal Navy failed to show. Britain withdrew its permanent naval presence from Bahrain as war loomed in early 2026. Its fleet is so small, aged, and undermanned that the nation that invented \u201cgunboat diplomacy\u201d was unable to rush a single destroyer to the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not Winston Churchill we\u2019re dealing with,\u201d Trump said of Starmer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast time I checked, there was supposed to be a big, bad Royal Navy,\u201d Secretary of War <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/pete-hegseth\/\">Pete Hegseth <\/a>said on March 31. On the same day, President Trump posted marching orders on Truth Social. Countries \u201clike the United Kingdom\u201d that needed oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz should \u201cbuild up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Starmer declared that British forces would not join the American blockade of the Strait. On April 24, a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/pentagon-email-floats-suspending-spain-nato-other-steps-over-iran-rift-source-2026-04-24\/\">leaked Pentagon email<\/a> outlined options for punishing the NATO allies that had failed to support America. The proposals include suspending Spain from the alliance and reconsidering American recognition of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/europe\/\">Europe<\/a>\u2019s vestigial \u201cimperial possessions.\u201d These include the Falkland Islands, the South Atlantic British territory that is claimed by Argentina.<\/p>\n<p>Two hundred fifty years after the Americans shook off George III, the Trump administration was considering whether to reallocate Charles\u2019 possessions to punish his ministers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-royal-tea\"><span style=\"background-color: rgba(17, 17, 17, 0.2);\">Royal tea<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The king and queen landed at Joint Base Andrews on April 27, changed at Blair House into something less comfortable, then joined the president and first lady for a walk in the White House Garden. The king is a keen apiarist and supplements his income by selling honey from his Cornish estates under his Duchy Organic brand, and the queen keeps her own bees as well as her own house. They appreciated the beehive shaped like a miniature White House that the first lady has installed on the South Lawn in a bid to make the White House kitchens as self-sufficient in honey as the nation is in energy.<\/p>\n<p>The president has yet to state his position on honey, but he looked energized. A brush with death has that effect. So does a brush with royalty. He prompted the king to admire a linden tree planted by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, when she visited in 1991. This \u201cliving symbol\u201d of the \u201ccenturies-old bond\u201d between their peoples was a reminder, the president said, that the mightiest of trees, like the greatest of nations, must be anchored by the strongest and deepest of roots.\u201d The king is a mystic philosopher as well as a keen gardener, so he would have enjoyed the arboreal imagery.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks in Plymouth, England, in front of one of the Royal Air Force\u2019s 119 planes, April 24, 2025. ( Richard Pohle \/ AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Next, a private tea in the Green Room of the White House, just the four of them, the butler and the photographer. Like ancient priests inspecting a pigeon\u2019s innards, the royal handlers pronounced it a good augury that the quartet lingered over the scones for more than the allotted 30 minutes. The jetlagged royals then headed from the White House to a garden party at the British ambassador\u2019s residence for 650 guests. Three thousand sandwiches with a choice of four fillings (roast beef and horseradish, smoked salmon with lemon butter, egg mayonnaise, and the trusty cucumber), scones with clotted cream, cakes, British-grown sparkling wine, and even more tea. The king and queen sealed a time capsule in the ambassador\u2019s library. Its contents, like their private thoughts, are unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Like Trump, the British monarchy should be taken seriously, but not literally. They are symbols, and are most successful when, like symbols, they allow others to fill them with meaning. Not all members of the royal family are entitled halfwits. The Firm, as they call themselves, are skilled performers. The comedy of protocol is the feint that covers the advance of serious diplomatic ambition. The serious performance of speeches and personal meetings advances crabwise by irony, the one export that Britain never ceases to produce. The centerpiece of the state visit, a joint address to both Houses of Congress, was a masterclass in charm.<\/p>\n<p>After warming up with mutual affirmations at the White House on April 28, Charles became only the second British monarch to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/4546461\/read-in-full-king-charles-iiis-address-to-congress\/\">address a joint session<\/a> of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/congress\/\">Congress<\/a>. His mother, as in most matters royal, got there first.<\/p>\n<p>We live, Charles said, in \u201ctimes of great uncertainty.\u201d The relationship of the British and American nations goes back four centuries, to when they were one nation. The principle on which they diverged, taxation without representation, was both the source of \u201ca fundamental disagreement between us, and at the same time a shared democratic value which you inherited from us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two nations, Charles said, remain \u201cinstinctively like-minded\u201d as products of the \u201ccommon democratic, legal and social traditions in which our governance is rooted to this day.\u201d When they act together, they create \u201cgreat change\u201d for themselves and the world. These legacies are the \u201cspecial ingredient in our relationship.\u201d He did not mention that this relationship is relatively young. Though Charles is the 19th British monarch since the \u201cTale of Two Georges\u201d in 1776, he is only the third to visit the U.S. The first was his grandfather, George VI, who visited in 1939, when war in Europe was imminent, and Britain knew it would need American support.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A bell from the HMS Trump, a British submarine launched in 1944 during World War II, presented to President Donald Trump by King Charles III during a state dinner at the White House, April 28, 2026. (Samir Hussein \/ WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cKing George never set foot in America,\u201d Charles joked, \u201cand please, rest assured, I am not here as part of some cunning rearguard action.\u201d This, as the British might have said when they ruled India, was the elephant in the room. Since 1941, Britain has compensated for its slow decline through a close alliance with the U.S. Charles\u2019 charm offensive is a rearguard action for a Britain teetering on the edge of economic crisis and strategic irrelevance. It is true that, as Charles said, the burden of world affairs is \u201ctoo great for any one nation to bear alone,\u201d and that an alliance cannot solely \u201crest on past achievements.\u201d Nor can it survive through talk alone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRenewal today starts with security,\u201d Charles said. His government recognizes that there needs to be a \u201ctransformation in British defense\u201d and has committed to \u201cthe biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War.\u201d Charles, who reminded Congress that he had served in the Royal Navy like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him, volunteered as the symbolic linchpin of the trans-Atlantic alliance that Winston Churchill called the \u201cSpecial Relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-royalty-and-reality\"><span style=\"background-color: rgba(17, 17, 17, 0.2);\">Royalty and reality<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Churchill coined that phrase in his \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org\/sinews-of-peace-iron-curtain-speech.html\">Iron Curtain<\/a>\u201d address at Fulton, Missouri, in March 1946. The U.S., he said, was \u201cat the pinnacle of world power.\u201d It needed an \u201coverall strategic concept\u201d that could order the world in favor of the \u201cfraternal association of English-speaking peoples\u201d while shielding all from \u201cthe gaunt marauders, war and tyranny.\u201d If the \u201cpopulations of the English-speaking Commonwealths be added to that of the United States,\u201d and their governments cooperated \u201cin the air, on the sea, all over the globe and in science and industry,\u201d there would be no \u201cquivering, precarious balance of power\u201d for the enemies of English-speaking liberty to exploit. Britain, Churchill said, was up to the task.<\/p>\n<p>Britain\u2019s imperial rearguard action aligned with America\u2019s forward footing in the Cold War in Europe. But the two aligned only partially in the Middle East. The Eisenhower administration used the Suez Crisis of 1956 to replace Britain and France as regional arbiters, though Britain remained influential in the Gulf monarchies.<\/p>\n<p>English-speaking interests did not align in the Far East, either. The Commonwealth states of Australia and New Zealand sent troops to the Vietnam War, but when President Lyndon Johnson asked Labour\u2019s Harold Wilson to send a regiment of the Black Watch, Wilson refused. Johnson\u2019s pique explains why he was the only American president whom Elizabeth II did not meet during his term in office.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">King Charles III speaks with White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller at a garden party at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., April 27, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt \/ Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Though Britain took part in American-led interventions in the 1990s and early 2000s, its military reach slowly atrophied. Today, the Royal Navy\u2019s fleet has shrunk from 1,400 vessels in 1945 to just over 60 vessels, the smallest fleet since the days of Oliver Cromwell. The British army has fewer men at arms than at any time since 1823, and the peace dividend that followed the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Royal Air Force, which had 55,000 planes in 1945, is down to 119 planes.<\/p>\n<p>Britain\u2019s defense budget for 2025-26 is $84 billion (\u00a362.2 billion). The government <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/defence-departmental-resources-2024\/mod-departmental-resources-2024\">allocates more to pensions<\/a> ($371 billion, or \u00a3275 billion), the National Health Service and social care ($270 billion, or \u00a3200 billion), education ($180 billion, or \u00a3134 billion), and running the Department of Treasury ($108 billion, or \u00a380 billion). Servicing the national debt will absorb more than 8% of government spending in 2025-26 (at least $153 billion, or \u00a3114 billion), and more if the Iran war leads to high inflation. <\/p>\n<p>Labour\u2019s plan is to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/commonslibrary.parliament.uk\/research-briefings\/cbp-8175\/\">raise defense spending<\/a> from 2.4% of GDP in 2025, which exceeds NATO\u2019s previous minimal target of 2%, to meet NATO\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nato.int\/en\/what-we-do\/introduction-to-nato\/defence-expenditures-and-natos-5-commitment\">new target<\/a>: 3.5% of GDP, by 2035. This would require cutting welfare subsidies and the National Health Service\u2019s budget, which would anger key blocs of the Labour vote and probably spark a revolt in the parliamentary party. Starmer and his ministers have not denied the Ministry of Defence\u2019s assessment that it faces a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c14rj11ez5mo\">funding gap<\/a> over the next four years. Despite the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, in mid-April, Keir Starmer refused to say when the government would release its long-term plans.<\/p>\n<p>Britain\u2019s infirmity is not solely caused by underfunding and the collapse of political vision into domestic debt servicing and welfarism. Britain\u2019s 2025-26 defense budget of $84 billion (\u00a362.2 billion) is far higher than Israel\u2019s defense budget for 2025: a record-setting $32 billion (9 billion shekels), not including supplemental funding. Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military has reshaped its region and proven itself to be a key force multiplier for American policy. Britain\u2019s military has a far higher budget, but a fraction of the capacity. The \u201ccorrosive complacency\u201d that Lord Robinson, a former NATO chief, diagnosed in Britain\u2019s defense establishment is consistent with the rot in Britain\u2019s civilian ministries.<\/p>\n<p>While Charles and Camilla worked their mission impossible, the <em>Financial Times<\/em> leaked some undiplomatic remarks from Sir Christian Turner, the new British ambassador to Washington D.C. Back in February, Turner told a group of British students that he disliked the phrase \u201cspecial relationship.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s quite nostalgic, it\u2019s quite backwards-looking, and it has a lot of baggage about it.\u201d If America has a special relationship with any of its client states, Turner said, it is \u201cprobably with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-after-the-party\">After the party<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThese things are never easy,\u201d a courtier whispered to the <em>Telegraph<\/em> newspaper. \u201cBut if they were, it wouldn\u2019t need the king to do it. We could leave it to the politicians.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/king-charles-iii-hosts-trump-for-lavish-uk-state-banquet\/\" title=\"... hosts Trump for lavish UK ... banquet\">white-tie dinner<\/a> in the East Room of the White House went off perfectly. The first lady supervised the menu: a garden-herb velout\u00e9 with hearts of palm salad, spring herb ravioli, Dover Sole meuni\u00e8re, and a chocolate gateau shaped like a beehive. Toasts were exchanged, and the king gave the president a bell from the World War II-era submarine <em>HMS Trump<\/em>, which was built in Britain and sailed by Australians.<\/p>\n<p>As in ancient times, the emperor was gratified by the tribute of a client king, and the client king returned to his satrapy, checking that his territories were intact.<\/p>\n<p>Trump likes Britain. At the White House on April 28, he ad-libbed that his Scottish mother adored Elizabeth II and had \u201ca crush\u201d on the young Charles. Trump\u2019s two Scottish golf resorts make him the only American president to own property in Britain, though in 1902, three decades before becoming president, Herbert Hoover rented a house near London called, funnily enough, The White House. In September 2025, Trump became the only <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4538128\/campaign-against-the-camp-of-the-saints\/\">American president to receive a second state visit to Britain. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4538128\/campaign-against-the-camp-of-the-saints\/\"><strong>THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST \u2018THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS\u2019 <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trump dislikes what Britain has become. He has criticized its immigration policies as \u201cinsane,\u201d called London\u2019s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan a \u201cdisaster,\u201d and lamented how Britain hosts \u201cradical Islamist terror.\u201d Most British people feel the same way, but Trump caused offense by falsely claiming that British troops were \u201ca little off the front lines\u201d in the Afghanistan war. This was not the way to stir the British public to call for action against Iran. Perhaps the British public, sharing Starmer\u2019s perception that the country is one economic squeeze away from disaster, is as beyond persuasion now as it was in the \u201clocust years\u201d of the 1930s.<\/p>\n<p>In April <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ipsos.com\/en-uk\/public-opinion-hardens-against-iran-war-economic-concerns-persist\">polling<\/a> by the Ipsos firm, 65% of Britons disapproved of American strikes on Iran and 77% feared the economic consequences. More than 60% feared a disruption in the supply of food and toiletries. Support for launching American strikes from British bases had declined from 31% to 23% in a month.<\/p>\n<p>On Iran, Starmer finally found a policy that both his party and the public like. But prime ministers come and go ever more quickly in Charles\u2019s distempered kingdom, and Starmer may be gone soon. Britain\u2019s problems will continue to grow. Charles, the front man for an ever more shabby operation, may be reminded of Shakespeare\u2019s plaint:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>O, how shall summer\u2019s honey breath hold out<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Against the wrackful siege of battering days?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Dominic Green is a <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>columnist and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Find him on X @drdominicgreen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VIP Airbus departed Joint Base Andrews for Bermuda on April 28 as Charles III and Camilla stayed composed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":947,"featured_media":2597443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feat.Britain1.050626.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[78913,33714,38749,34756,67043],"class_list":["post-2597442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-diplomacy-news","tag-keir-starmer","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-special-relationship","tag-us-uk-relations"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Feat.Britain1.050626.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/947"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2597442"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2597446,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597442\/revisions\/2597446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2597443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2597442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2597442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2597442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}