King Charles III is set to travel to the United States later this month on a state visit expected to include an address to Congress and meetings with President Donald Trump at the White House, as the British government looks to strengthen a transatlantic relationship that has come under considerable strain.
The trip, scheduled to run from 27 to 30 April, has been in planning for months, with Buckingham Palace, the Foreign Office, the Trump administration and the UK Embassy in Washington all involved in coordinating the details. The visit coincides with America’s 250th anniversary of independence, and the Palace has said it will mark both the historical ties and the current bilateral relationship between the two nations.
The backdrop, however, is far from straightforward. President Trump is presently leading a military campaign against Iran, and has in recent days publicly criticised countries — including the United Kingdom — that he believes have not done enough to support the effort. It falls to the King, as a constitutional monarch, to represent the British government’s interest in preserving the alliance rather than to comment on the politics surrounding it.
The visit also comes with a series of separate pressures closer to home for the royal family. Just a short distance from the White House, members of the US Congress have called for Prince Andrew — arrested in February in connection with his ties to Jeffrey Epstein — to appear before lawmakers and give evidence. Buckingham Palace has made no public statement on the matter since his arrest, a position it is expected to maintain while legal proceedings continue.
There is also the question of the King’s son, the Duke of Sussex, who lives in California with his wife and their two children. The King has met his granddaughter Lilibet only once. While the two will be in the same country during the visit, the King is not expected to meet the Duke of Sussex during the trip, according to the BBC.
This is not the first time the monarchy has been called upon to help navigate a difficult moment in UK-US relations. In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II visited President Eisenhower in the wake of the Suez Crisis, when relations between London and Washington had been seriously damaged. Nearly two decades later, she returned in 1976 to mark 200 years of American independence, at a time when the United States was still coming to terms with the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Nixon.
At the state banquet during that 1976 visit, the late Queen told President Gerald Ford that in times of uncertainty, the value of what is known and certain must never be underestimated. It is a sentiment her son is now being asked to carry into a fresh set of circumstances.
The programme for the April visit is expected to include the White House state dinner and the Congressional address, with further details likely to be confirmed as the trip approaches.
