Helen Pitt

The supposedly apolitical monarch even appealed to Trump on NATO and Ukraine.

But was the president listening to what the king was really saying?

From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Helen Pitt.

Joining me today is Guardian columnist Jonathan Friedland, who's also the host of our Politics Weekly America podcast.

Lovely to see you, Jonathan.

So Tuesday was a pretty historic day for King Charles.

He was the first British monarch to address the US Congress since his mum, 35 years ago, when the first George Bush was in the White House.

We're going to get to that speech a bit later.

But let's start with his, I'd say, more of a barnstormer of a speech.

The one that he gave at a very lavish dinner at the White House.

I genuinely laughed, I think, five times while I was watching it.

It was sort of Notting Hill meets the darkest hour.

A lot of subtext.

and also a lot of jokes.

What did you make of it?

Yeah, and there was one bit where Charles dared to make a joke about Trump's plans to build this fantastic new ballroom in the east wing of the White House.

For those whose American history isn't great, what was he getting at?

Yeah, and by the time he stood up at the dinner, he'd already had to deal with a few curveballs from Trump, who had given his own speech.

And the U.S.

president put Charles on the spot a little bit, didn't he, when he raised what Trump called, and what a euphemism this is, a little Middle East work, the war in Iran.