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Chapter 1: What historic event did King Charles participate in during his visit to the US?
This is The Guardian.
They do go a bit weak-kneed at the sight of a monarch. It's that notion of history. Remember, American history is quite short.
The founding fathers were bold and imaginative rebels with a cause. 250 years ago, or as we say in the United Kingdom, just the other day... LAUGHTER They declared independence.
It was quality stuff, coded but not that coded. By royal standards, it was actually pretty direct. This visit and the rave reviews he's getting, the ovations, the laughter at the White House will represent a big moment for him in his own life story.
Chapter 2: How did King Charles' speech at the White House dinner go over with the audience?
A historic day for King Charles, sent to Washington to salvage the ever shakier special relationship. There were jokes, there were digs. 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.
Good to be with you.
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.
Chapter 3: What humorous references did King Charles make regarding US-British history?
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, it was a chance for King Charles stand up. I mean, it was his Washington debut of his comedy routine.
Chapter 4: What was the significance of King Charles addressing NATO and Ukraine?
And it went down extremely well. I mean, they were very well judged jokes.
You recently commented, Mr. President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German. Dare I say that if it wasn't for us, you'd be speaking French.
You know, the speechwriters at the Palace, I've thought this for a long while, are really the best in the UK, I think, better than any politician has. And that includes the gag writing. It was quality stuff. And it played on the idea that he is this historical figure. And his audience will have thought of, you know, his great, great, I think he said five times, great grandfather, George...
the third and the character from Hamilton.
Chapter 5: How did Trump respond to King Charles' appeals during their meeting?
He was sort of playing that in a way, you know, with these references as if the 18th century had only just happened. So playing into, leaning into the fact he is 77 and that he represents the old world and that the Americans who broke from Britain, they have a kind of nostalgia. You can tickle their tummy with jokes about the royal past.
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.
And I'm sorry to say that we British, of course, made our own small attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814.
For those whose American history isn't great, what was he getting at?
Well, there was a war between Britain and the United States, and it did culminate in British forces burning down the White House. And that is still remembered in some quarters. And so he was nodding to that.
And it was just those jokes that appear to be self-deprecating, in which he's having a poke at his British forebears for daring to burn down the White House, but really having a little sly dig afterwards.
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Chapter 6: What was the underlying message of King Charles' speech about the special relationship?
at what is controversial in the United States, which is Donald Trump's rather vain plan for a ballroom to glorify his own image. And the jokes all had that quality all the way through where he made a reference to the fact that his mother had had to be charged with resetting, putting the special back in the special relationship after there'd been a war in the Middle East.
He was referring to Suez in 1956, but he said, you know, 70 years on, who could imagine such a thing happening now? And it's just that that deft ability that he had, I thought, which was to, yes, name the elephant in the room, but to do it in a light enough way that everyone could laugh and join together rather than being pulled apart.
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.
And we're never going to let that opponent ever, Charles agrees with me even more than I do, We're never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon.
I mean, a massive violation of protocol.
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Chapter 7: How did the visit aim to repair the relationship between the UK and the US?
Every British prime minister knows, for example, that what is said in the audience with the monarch is utterly confidential and must never get out. That's been followed by British prime ministers and it's been followed by American presidents, that convention. And it enables the monarch to speak very candidly.
And we're only now beginning to discover that the queen really was quite focused in her political comments to world leaders, but knowing it would stay in the room. Of course, the one person you can't trust with a confidence of any kind is Donald Trump, who immediately then goes and blabs it. And I think that could have been very awkward for the king.
I think where he's lucky is people will assume... You know what? Donald Trump hears what he wants to hear. He probably exaggerated what Charles said to him, but he may be more guarded in their private conversations from now on.
Chapter 8: What are the future engagements planned for King Charles in the US?
Yeah. And remind us, why is Charles there anyway?
Well, it's the 250th anniversary of the... The semi-quincentennial anniversary, as Charles put it. Yeah, he did. And again, leaning into that image of the sort of quite fusty, older, more formal Britain and sort of playing on that role. 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, of course, when the United States broke from Britain.
And so the running gag through the whole visit has been, well, we're still a little bit annoyed with you for leaving us, but we've got over it. And therefore, that's a model for our whole relationship. We can have these differences of agreement. The whole relationship began with the difference of opinion.
And we've got over it and had a good relationship anyway, which is a very timely message for when the British government refusing to go in with the war in Iran and on Iran is at odds with the American government. In a way, here's the king to say that's been our whole history all along from the beginning. And it's OK.
Yeah. And so it seems that this visit is basically yet another attempt to shore up the fated special relationship, which it seems even our own new ambassador to Washington, the UK ambassador, doesn't even believe in.
He was caught on some kind of hot mic from some schoolchildren, I think, according to the FT, saying that the real special relationship that the US have is with Israel and not the UK.
Yeah, I mean, terrible timing from the point of view of the royal visit. Somebody leaked that, obviously trying to cause trouble because it was a while ago. I think it was in February that the new replacement ambassador, the replacement of Peter Mandelson, made these remarks.
I suspect what he was saying, not very diplomatically, was if you actually think about military cooperation now, the Israelis and the Americans are working closely, hand in glove, more than any two countries, I think, probably ever before in the Middle East.
in the war in Iran and therefore that's more special but I think again such is the separate distinct category a monarch is put in I think in a way the American political class will look past that and because they they treat Charles differently if this was Keir Starmer coming And now those remarks had surfaced. That would have been trouble.
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