April 28, 2026 - King and Queen arrive in Washington, but can they save the UK-US relationship?

Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla have arrived in Washington, D.C. at the start of

a four-day state visit to the U.S. Their trip comes at a time of tremendous tensions

between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Sakeer Stalmer that have only intensified

after the UK refused to join the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. The British government

will be hoping that the King can deploy some soft power to alleviate the tensions while

he's also commemorating the approaching 250th anniversary of American independence. But

can that strategy work with the U.S. leader as unpredictable as Donald Trump? Simon

Marks reports from Washington.

The last time America celebrated a big birthday was back in 1976. The bicentennial brought

Queen Elizabeth II to the White House at the invitation of President Gerald Ford.

The wounds of our parting in 1776 healed long ago. Americans admire the United Kingdom

as one of our truest allies and best friends.

The British and American people are as close today as two people have ever been. We

see you as our strong and trusted friend. And we believe that you in turn will find

us as ready as ever to bear our full share in defending the values in which we both believe.

When President Donald Trump and King Charles III engage in exactly the same official welcoming

ceremony at the White House later today, it is far from evident that either of them will

be able confidently to voice such similar cadences. The bilateral relationship between the

U.S. and U.K. governments is unrecognizable in 2026 compared to the 1976 model. On a daily

basis for the last several weeks, the President has launched numerous personal attacks on

Prime Minister Sakeer Starmer, criticizing him for failing to join the U.S. and Israeli

war on Iran, berating him for agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Chegos Islands

over to Mauritius, even though Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially called the deal

a monumental achievement, and constantly griping over two issues that the President believes

the U.K. urgently needs to address.

The U.K. what they're doing with energy and what they're doing with immigration is horrible.

Somebody said yesterday, what would you do if you were the U.K.? Open up the North Sea.

So it's very simple. Immigration, very importantly, immigration and energy.

The White House yesterday afternoon reporters were kept to distance from the King and Queen,

as the President and First Lady welcomed them to the South Portico for an unofficial greeting.

The official pageantry infused welcome takes place later today.

The reporters suggested that the President was diverting the King's attention in the direction

of the construction site where he's building his coveted ballroom.

The forceum then took tea in the green room, before the trumps showed their guests a new

beehive on the South lawn, modelled in the shape of the White House. There, the afternoon's

only audible comments, came from a White House chef telling the King that state dinner attendees

will all go home with a jar of White House honey tonight.

It will take a lot more than that, though, to sweeten a bilateral relationship that has

dramatically soured since the President's return to the Oval Office. The NATO alliance

is now threatened with a possible American withdrawal. The war in Iran has brought economic

havoc to the U.K. and its European neighbours. Before it began, so did Donald Trump's so-called

Liberation Day tariffs last year, now ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

It will test even the King's ability to engage in effective soft power using the authority

of his royal role as the U.K.'s head of state to divert President Trump onto a more positive

diplomatic path.

Britain's former national security adviser, Samarck Lyle Grant.

I think this visit will go extremely well, and let's not forget the world family's

a fantastic soft power tool for the United Kingdom. We've seen it in the past, and we'll

see it again, I'm sure, this coming week.

But some voices on this side of the Atlantic worry that even in an effort to engage in soft

power, the King's gentle nudging may be doomed to fail.

As an American, as someone who cares about democracy, I hope that the King will not

enable Trump in any way.

Chris Adelson is a constitutional scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

He's also the author of a new book called Above the Law, the evolution of emergency presidential

power.

There's this idea that, you know, you get to Trump through flattery. You hear about

this all the time.

Well sure, he likes to be flattered, but you can't trust the man. So it doesn't really

get you anything tangible. I really think the only, and I say it's very sadly, and it's

a heavy, difficult thing for me to say, think the only thing that world leaders who care

about democracy now can do is recognize Donald Trump as an enemy to democracy and disengage

and not lend him any legitimacy.

That is not the tech.

The UK government is taking only on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister David Lamy publicly

insisted that the historic special relationship between the two countries is intact.

His boss, the Prime Minister, has repeatedly claimed that you can see the special relationship

in action by looking at areas of partnership even amid the ongoing strains.

The King and Queen's first day here ended at the newly refurbished British Embassy, acquire

on hand at a garden party they hosted alongside new UK ambassador Christian Turner, who has

replaced his disgraced predecessor, the friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Lord Peter Mandelson.

The visit will also take the Royal couple to New York, where they'll visit the 9-11

memorial, promote two-way trade and hold what is built as a soft power reception.

On Thursday, they'll visit Arlington National Cemetery after bidding a formal farewell

to the Trumps at the White House.

And that's when, as the Americans like to say, the rubber may hit the road, because once

this state visit is over, President Trump is widely expected to launch fresh critiques

of the Starmer government, unless, of course, the King can work wonders here.

For Monaco Radio in Washington, I'm Simon Marx.