America is turning 250 years old so King Charles III is coming over to mark the occasion and try to patch up the so-called Special Relationship between the U.S. and U.K., which has been strained badly during the second Trump administration. The trip is going ahead despite the attempted attack on Trump at the White House Correspondents dinner over the weekend.
Fun fact: The American colonists -- or tax-dodging rebels, as some in Britain still jokingly call them -- got their independence from Charles' great-great-great-great-great grandfather, George III.
The first stop on Monday is tea, of course. King Charles and Queen Camilla will join Trump and First Lady Melania for tea at the White House. After that, the royal couple will host a garden party at the British Ambassador's residence, where there will be more tea and scones (and four types of sandwiches). The last time a member of the royal family led an event in the U.S. was was in 1939 and held by King George VI.
Tuesday is the big day. Charles and Camilla will be formally welcomed at the White House with a military review, exchange of gifts and hear a speech by Trump on the South Lawn. Charles will then be the first monarch since his mother Elizabeth II in 1991 to address a joint session of Congress. The royal couple will then return to the White House for a state dinner.
After two days in the nation's capital, the king and queen will visit New York, including the 9/11 memorial site Wednesday, meeting first responders and families of victims. Charles is due to meet Wall Street tech titans, while Camilla does something very British: attend a literary event marking 100 years of Winnie the Pooh.
Another fun fact: The New York Public Library has the original stuffed animals that belonged to A.A. Milne's son Christopher Robin and were used as a basis for the characters: Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga and Tigger. The only one missing is Roo, which Christopher Robin reportedly lost as a boy in the 1930s. Queen Camilla is bringing a replacement to complete the set.
The following day, they return to D.C. to say goodbye to the Trumps and will visit a national park in the Appalachian mountains to meet indigenous Americans.
Charles is Britain's best diplomatic card to play at a time when bilateral relations are at a generational low. Among the factors that explain the tense transatlantic ties: Trump tariffs on the U.K., his threats to take over Greenland, criticism of NATO, an approach to the Ukraine war that many in Britain see as not tough enough on Russia and Trump's anger over the U.K. not joining the war on Iran. Recently, media reports indicated the U.S. was even considering not recognizing Britain's claim to the Falkland Islands near Argentina to "punish" the U.K. over the Iran war.
Charles hopes to smooth things over. Trump is a big fan of the royal family, and was given a rare second state visit to the U.K. last year, which he described as the honor of a lifetime. After the last time the pair met, Trump noticeably backed off his comments about how Canada -- of which Charles is head of state -- should be America's 51st state.
It is always a bit uncomfortable for a royal family to visit a country to celebrate it gaining its independence from, well, them. But they usually handle it with a very British approach: subtle, dry humor. When Queen Elizabeth II visited for the bicentennial in 1976, she said in a speech it was "with a particular personal interest that I view those events which took place 200 years ago."
Other sources of discomfort include the fact that Charles' brother Andrew was arrested earlier this year over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Charles has stripped his brother of his titles and booted him off the Windsor estate, forcing Andrew Mountbatten Windsor to live in a cottage owned by the family in Norfolk. Charles is also not expected to see his second son Prince Harry, who lives in the U.S. with his wife Meghan Markle after quitting their royal duties in 2021.