More than two centuries after the 13 colonies rebelled against King George III and sent his redcoats packing, a direct descendant of that monarch will arrive Monday in Washington to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence from British rule.
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King Charles’ mission, which he has chosen to accept: repairing what’s known in Britain as the “special relationship” with the United States, ties that have been significantly tested under President Donald Trump.
While British royals aim to stay above the political fray, that is easier said than done. In recent months, Trump has questioned the contribution of NATO soldiers during the Afghanistan war, where 457 British service members were killed, publicly attacked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his lack of support for the war with Iran, and yanked his backing for a plan to cede sovereignty of a British territory in the Indian Ocean that is home to a joint U.S.-British military base.
On Friday, a new political firestorm was triggered in the U.K. when Reuters published an internal Pentagon email, not confirmed by NBC News, that proposed punishing Britain for its stance on the Iran war by reviewing the U.S. position on the Falkland Islands, another British overseas territory, which Argentina attempted to take by force in the 1980s. The resulting war killed hundreds of people.
British officials have pushed back forcefully, with a spokesperson for Starmer saying: “We could not be clearer about the U.K.’s position on the Falkland Islands. It is longstanding, it is unchanged.”
And on Sunday, after shots rang at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and Trump and other officials were rushed from the ballroom, Charles and Queen Camilla reached out privately to express their concern, according to a source familiar with the development.
“A number of discussions will be taking place throughout the day to discuss with U.S. colleagues and our respective teams to what degree the events of Saturday evening may or may not impact on the operational planning for the visit,” the spokesperson said.
Regardless of whether plans are rejigged, there will be plenty of pomp and circumstance for Charles, 77, as befitting a state visit of a British king to a country that his ancestors once ruled. It will come complete with a formal welcome at the White House and a private tea ceremony with Donald and Melania Trump.
The British royal is also expected to deliver an address to Congress, and there are trips planned to New York and Virginia, where Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, will attend a “block party” to celebrate America’s 250th birthday.
Buckingham Palace, in its announcement, has cast the king’s visit as “an opportunity to recognise the shared history of our two nations.”
But what Charles will really be working on during the trip is Trump, royal experts told NBC News.
“It’s clearly one of the most controversial state visits the king will undertake in his reign,” said Craig Prescott, who specializes in the constitutional and political role of the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London.
The U.K. government will hoping the royals’ trip will help smooth things over and Charles will “perhaps have a quiet word in Trump’s ear in those private conversations,” Prescott said.
Luckily for Charles, Trump has a soft spot for the British royals.
Trump told the BBC on Thursday that Charles’ visit could “absolutely” help repair relations with the U.K., calling the king “fantastic” and “a great man.”
In particular, Trump was a great admirer of Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth, who visited the U.S. in 2007 and hosted Trump on his own state visit to Britain 12 years later, during his first term in office.
Queen Elizabeth II greets schoolchildren while walking from the White House to Blair House in May 2007.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II addresses a Joint Session of the Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol in 1991.Dennis Brack / CNP/Getty Images file
“The king is going to have to draw on all the experience that he saw firsthand of the diplomatic masterpieces that his mother used to pull off,” said NBC royal contributor Daisy McAndrew.
“The king knows exactly what he has got to try to do, and that is to pump some air back into the rather deflated special relationship,” McAndrew added.
But Charles will also have to be mindful of how his visit with Trump will play with his subjects back home, the experts said.
The king will have to engage in the “typical niceties” that come with a state visit, but not overdo it, because Trump is deeply unpopular in Britain, Prescott said.
A YouGov poll published in February showed that only 16% of Britons have a favorable opinion of the U.S. president. Another YouGov poll published last month showed that nearly half of the British public is opposed to the king’s visit to the U.S.
Some British politicians have urged Starmer to call off the king’s visit to the U.S.
“I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side,” Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats party, told Parliament earlier this month. Zack Polanski of the Green Party also called for the visit to be scrapped, telling reporters on Friday he’d also like for Trump to be “kicked out” of owning golf courses in Scotland.
The leader of a British group that campaigns to abolish the monarchy said Charles’ visit was unlikely to stop Trump from making decisions that would be bad for Britain.
“He’s not going to go, ‘Well, I like Charles, I admire the royals, and therefore I’m going to be good to Britain,’” said Graham Smith, head of the British anti-monarchy group Republic. “If Britain doesn’t do what he wants, he will attack us again.”
King Charles and President Donald Trump arrive at the ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle in Sept. 2025.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
The visit is only the latest of Britain’s attempts to win over Trump, who came to the U.K. on an unprecedented second state visit last September, when he was greeted by Charles at Windsor Castle with a carriage procession and dazzled by a display of Britain’s ceremonial traditions.
While that occasion did not prove sufficient to prevent political differences from bubbling up a few weeks later, there was little drama during the trip itself.
“Trump holds the institution in great respect. He is always on his best behavior when he is with the royal family,” said Ed Owens, an author and royal historian. “I think he recognizes that prime ministers don’t last forever, they come and go. Whereas this monarchy, it’s been around for a thousand years with only one brief interruption, and that is significant.”
Tensions are high over a number of issues, but both sides will be hoping to avoid the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, which hangs over officials on both sides of the Atlantic, embroiling Trump, Starmer’s former U.S. Ambassador Peter Mandelson and King Charles’ younger brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew. All three men deny any wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor is under investigation by the police for alleged misconduct in a public office following the release of private emails with Epstein. Charles stripped him of his titles last year.
There have been growing calls for Charles to meet with Epstein’s victims when he is in the U.S., including from the family of the late Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of trafficking her to Mountbatten-Windsor as a teenager.
A Buckingham Palace official told NBC News that Charles will not meet with Epstein survivors, saying it could prejudice the ongoing U.K. police investigations into Epstein-related cases.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., one of the authors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that spurred the release of millions of files related to his dealings, expressed his disappointment Wednesday in a post on X.
“The British Monarchy can be seen as a relic of colonialism & imperialism, or it can be a modern force for standing up for women’s rights & human rights,” Khanna wrote. “I hope he will reconsider.”
Prescott said it’s not likely Charles will change his mind. “That’s not what he has gone to America for,” he said.