His journey to America was the most important since FDR entertained his grandfather in 1939. The post The King’s Visit Couldn’t Save the U.S.-Anglo Relations, But It Didn’t Hurt appeared first on Washington Monthly.
When King Charles III addressed a joint session of Congress last month, he knocked the cover off the ball, to use a baseball, not a cricket, metaphor. In effect, a highly experienced diplomat, he deftly found a way to feature differences without undercutting a deteriorating relationship. It was the most important visit by a British monarch since 1939, when the King’s grandfather, George VI, visited to build American support for Britain’s looming war effort, the first U.S. visit by an English king. The charming hot dog lunch served by Franklin D. Roosevelt at his Hyde Park, New York, estate helped build public support for the U.K. “KING TRIES HOT DOGS AND ASKS FOR MORE,” pronounced The New York Times. The effort to build public support for Lend-Lease aid to Britain worked.
Today, the relationship between the United States and Britain is troubled. “Special relationship,” a shibboleth coined by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe the unparalleled political, cultural, economic, and historic ties between the United Kingdom and the United States. On this subject, the King said: “Our defense, intelligence and security ties are hard-wired together through relationships measured not in years, but in decades.” Many have questioned whether anything post-Trump remains of the “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain. The King reminded us of history:
“Ours is a partnership born out of dispute, but no less strong for it, so perhaps, in this example, we can discern that our nations are in fact instinctively like-minded—a product of the common democratic, legal and social traditions in which our governance is rooted to this day … This, I believe, is the special ingredient in our relationship. As President Trump himself observed during his state visit to Britain last autumn, ‘The bond of kinship and identity between America and the United Kingdom is priceless and eternal. It is irreplaceable and unbreakable.”
The speech, pitched and delivered superbly, was at once witty and warm, with enduring lines. He drew laughter and thunderous applause with a memorable line, “The Founding Fathers were bold and imaginative rebels with a cause.” He knew how to deliver it—low, slow, and with gravitas. I wonder whether he and the Queen ever spent an evening at Windsor Castle watching the James Dean movie that portrays the moral decay of American youth.
Nobody, least of all he, expected his gracefully delivered palpable hits to endure. Perhaps the one that matters most is Ukraine, where he received a standing ovation for his words: “Today, Mr. Speaker, that same, unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people. It is needed to secure a truly just and lasting peace.”
Vice President JD Vance, who in a televised Oval Office meeting in March 2025 had dissed Ukraine for not expressing sufficient thanks for U.S. aid, churlishly lingered in his chair before joining the lawmakers who rose in solidarity.
Charles stressed the importance of the precious rule of law, which he traced back to Magna Carta in 1215:
“The Founding Fathers] carried with them, and carried forward, the great inheritance of the British Enlightenment—as well as the ideals which had an even deeper history in English common law and Magna Carta … the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances.”
When he said that “executive power is subject to checks and balances,” there were roars of approbation from the Democrats and howls of execration from the MAGAs.
It is a sad day, and indeed quite humiliating, when a monarch needs to remind us of checks and balances. This King understands a point missed by our Supreme Court: No one in the executive branch of government is above the law, including a self-anointed autocrat consumed with outsized ballrooms, triumphal arches, and having his likeness on the currency.
When it came to climate change, our obtuse Vice President refused to rise with the lawmakers when he made the unexceptionable declaration on our shared responsibility to protect the environment. On what planet is Vance living?
On domestic terrorism, the King said something not sufficiently heard from our political leaders:
“Let me say with unshakeable resolve: such acts of [political] violence will never succeed. Whatever our differences, whatever disagreements we may have, we stand united in our commitment to uphold democracy, to protect all our people from harm, and to salute the courage of those who daily risk their lives in the service of our countries.”
The King also delighted the lawmakers by proclaiming his Christian faith, but then went on to stress interfaith relations and overcoming differences in belief to build community. The British may be a theme park for what once was, lacking in military strength and economic muscle, but they have elegance and eloquence in spades.
Trump claims he is ahead in the polls, but G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers noted that Trump has hit a new low in overall job performance and in his handling of the economy, at -22.2 and -40.3, respectively. The statistics reflect the percentage of people who approve of his handling of an issue minus those who disapprove. Indeed, Morris noted that Trump’s approval rating on the economy, traditionally the bastion of the GOP, is so low it “literally broke the scale of this graph on my data portal.” He’s at a low in several recent polls, hovering around 34 percent approval.
The Good Book says of the deceitful hypocrisy of autocratic leaders like Donald Trump trashing, indicting, and threatening his purported enemies as though they were Russians or North Koreans. “His words were softer than oil, yet they are drawn swords.”
We have much to learn from the King. The monarchy may be an anachronism, but his words were a welcome change from an overweening autocrat.
The post The King’s Visit Couldn’t Save the U.S.-Anglo Relations, But It Didn’t Hurt appeared first on Washington Monthly.
