King Charles set to lobby Trump on Canada, Ukraine and climate change on state visit ...Middle East

At first sight, King Charles has been placed in an awkward position by having to accede to Sir Keir Starmer’s demand that he host an urgent and unprecedented second state visit by Donald Trump.

The King and the US President are old friends, but on the face of it, agree about little, and although relations between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street have been good, there have been occasional tensions over the visit, expected in September.

While palace sources have downplayed reports of a rift, there have been tensions over Starmer presenting the King’s invite to Trump in public, and the accelerated timeframe for the state visit.

However, the monarch – and Prince William – are expected to use the opportunity to press Trump on key issues.

The King in particular will be given a relatively free rein to press Trump, who he has known for several decades, on policy areas of personal interest.

British and US sources have said they expect time to be carved out for both Charles and the Prince of Wales to hold private chats with Trump to discuss their concerns, subject to red lines that have yet to be drawn up.

In public his role is ceremonial, but some officials hope that behind the scenes the King, who has more than half a century of diplomatic experience, may be able to get across Britain’s worldview better than the politicians.

Charles, 76, is expected to use the time during the state visit, earmarked for Windsor Castle in mid-September, to explain his own personal views and those of the British government on issues such as climate change, Ukraine, and Trump’s threat to turn Canada, the monarch’s senior overseas realm, into the 51st US state.

But courtiers have insisted that the King would avoid doing anything that damaged Britain’s interests amid Downing Street’s efforts to woo the volatile President and strengthen ties with his administration by inviting him on an unprecedented second state visit. Usually, the best a foreign leader can hope for in a second term of office is to be invited for tea by the monarch.

Trump’s admiration for the monarchy has shown the value of the soft power that the Royal Family can wield on behalf of Britain.

Charles, according to those who know him well, relishes the chance to do his duty for his country and enjoys the company of powerful politicians, especially those open to listening to him expound his views on how to tackle the key challenges facing the world.

Still a key ally

The i Paper understands that the White House, keen to shore up relations with a country still regarded as a key ally, is relaxed about allocating time for him and William to lobby Trump.

The government is also considering setting another precedent: the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, wants his old friend, US Vice-President JD Vance, to be part of the state visit. “He would like to see the Vice-President join for at least part of the state visit if it’s possible,” a government official said.

Only three US presidents have been granted state visits, the highest form of diplomacy, and in each case the vice president did not accompany them. Trump came without Mike Pence in 2019, Dick Cheney did not join George W Bush in 2003, and Barack Obama was not joined by Joe Biden in 2011.

In spite of widespread opposition to Trump in Britain, palace and Downing Street officials are pulling out all the stops. They have denied reports that the King, partly prompted by concern over Trump’s threat to annex Canada, wanted to delay a state visit until later in the president’s four-year term.

It was claimed that Starmer overrode the monarch’s desire to wait and focus instead on hosting Trump on a private, informal visit this year at either Balmoral or Dumfries House in Scotland. But officials insist that everyone is on the same page and that ideally, the two would have met in Scotland in July before going ahead with the state visit in September, but were unable to find a time in their diaries when both would be available.

“His Majesty has known President Trump for many years and looks forward to hosting him and the First Lady later this year,” a palace aide said, confirming that the state visit would go ahead without an initial private meeting.

The King may welcome the opportunity but there certainly have been strains, despite the generally excellent relations between the government and the monarch in the first year of Starmer’s administration. Charles is understood to have been frustrated that in February, Starmer waved his initial invitation to Trump in front of the Oval Office cameras. It was supposed to have been delivered privately.

A few weeks later, in March, there was consternation in government when palace officials inadvertently gave the impression that there was no sense of urgency about planning for either proposed visit after it emerged that there had been no meetings about them in the Royal Household.

British and US diplomats worried about the messaging, concerned about how Trump might perceive any sense of foot-dragging as a snub, and stressed the desire of both sides to fast-track the arrangements. “Some state visits take three years of planning but this is on another trajectory,” one said.

Quite what difference Charles’s lobbying will make is open to question. When Trump came on his first state visit in 2019 the two men chatted for an hour and a half over afternoon tea at Clarence House. “Nothing but climate change,” Trump complained afterwards, rolling his eyes, according to the former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s 2021 memoir, I’ll Take Your Questions Now.

Starmer and Trump at this week’s Nato summit after the US bombed Iran (Photo: Ludovic Marin / POOL / AFP)

But when Trump was interviewed shortly afterwards by Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, he gushed about Charles. “He did most of the talking, and he was really into climate change and I think that’s great,” he said. “I totally listened to him.”

In his second term, Trump has rolled back environmental rules and dismissed efforts to decarbonise the US economy, cheering on the gas and oil industries and vowing: “Drill, baby, drill.”

In contrast, while Trump is in Britain in the autumn, the Sustainable Markets Initiative, the organisation the King founded to help the private sector work with governments to create an environmentally-friendly global economy, will be setting up a North American Council. Its goal is to convene business leaders from across Canada, Mexico, and the US to “build and accelerate private sector action for nature, people, and planet”. Many of the biggest banks in the US are key players in the initiative.

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Prince William will also want the chance to speak to Trump about his initiatives to conserve the natural world, and through his Earthshot Prize, encourage technological innovation to create a green economy.

Downing Street and the Palace will share strategies, but it may turn out that the King and William will be able to speak more frankly than the politicians.

Western leaders have slowly got the measure of Trump’s transactional approach to diplomacy and learned not to take his words too literally when he is negotiating for a better financial deal.

His rhetoric on Canada becoming the 51st US state has noticeably softened lately too since Charles opened the country’s parliament and made a speech stressing the Canadian government’s determination to stand up to its southern neighbour.

Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think-tank, said: “The decision to host President Trump’s state visit later this year leaves King Charles in a difficult diplomatic position as Sovereign of Canada, given Trump’s ongoing threats towards Canada.

“For Starmer, the aim of the visit will be to cement President Trump’s affinity for the UK and to offer President Trump one of the few things the US Presidency can’t give him – pomp and pageantry steeped in centuries of tradition. In the long term, Starmer will hope to continue to translate that affinity into more favourable policies with an unpredictable US President, who is not wedded to the US’ traditional allies.”

She added: “King Charles will be acutely aware that his role is more ceremonial and that the best thing he can do for the UK is to sit quietly and utilise the soft power of the monarchy to strengthen the UK’s relationship with President Trump.

“Nevertheless, the affinity President Trump has for King Charles does give him some room for manoeuvre to very subtly and very diplomatically push President Trump on key issues, including Ukraine, Canada, and tackling climate change.”

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