King Charles confirms US state visit amid growing European tensions over Iran war

The King and Queen Camilla will travel to the United States for a state visit with President Donald Trump amid mounting tension between Washington and Europe over the Iran war.

It will be the first time in nearly 20 years that a monarch has paid a state visit to the United States, with the King expected to address Congress.

Mr Trump confirmed the state visit, taking place between April 27 and 30, would also include a banquet dinner at the White House.

“I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“It will be TERRIFIC!”

But there have been widespread calls for King Charles to boycott the trip as the so-called “special relationship” between the US and the UK continued to fracture.

Less than an hour before Buckingham Palace confirmed the visit, Mr Trump lashed out at Sir Keir Starmer’s UK, telling the country to “go and get their own oil” from the Strait of Hormuz.

“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. 

The state visit, which Buckingham Palace said was made on advice from the UK government, comes amid a backdrop of tensions with other European countries too.

Europe restricts airspace to US war planes

Mr Trump used his Truth Social post on Tuesday to criticise France for not letting planes carrying military supplies to Israel fly over French territory.

Italy has also denied permission for US military aircraft to land at its air base in Sicily, despite the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni having close ties with Mr Trump.

Spain has also closed its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran, a step beyond its previous refusal to allow the use of jointly operated military bases.

“We fear absolutely nothing,” Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Spanish broadcaster TVE.

Before the state visit was confirmed, UK MP Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs parliament’s powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, said it would be “safer to delay” the visit, while Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the minority opposition Liberal Democrats, questioned: “Why are we rewarding Donald Trump with a state visit from our King?” 

A recent poll in the UK, carried out by YouGov, found nearly half of British citizens opposed the state visit to the US, with only a third saying it should go ahead.

The Stop Trump Coalition said the UK was paying “the price for Trump’s war” and the visit should be called off.

“If the government really wants to show that it wants an end to Trump’s illegal war, then it should cancel the King’s visit and follow Spain’s example.”

But Washington’s envoy to Britain, Warren Stephens, warned last week it would be a “big mistake” for the US visit to be cancelled.

Can the King help ease tensions?

The so-called “special relationship” between the US and the UK has been cracking since Mr Trump visited the UK for a state visit last September.

It was an unprecedented event as the US president became the first elected world leader to receive two state visits hosted by the British Royal Family.

The visit was a glittering occasion featuring dazzling tiaras, brass bands and an enormous banquet. 

State visits are designed to bolster ties between nations, particularly in difficult times and the Royal Family’s soft power diplomacy is viewed as an important way of engaging with Mr Trump.

While Mr Trump has regularly indicated he is fond of King Charles, he has criticised Sir Keir for being “no Winston Churchill” since conflict in the Middle East began.

Craig Prescott, an author and UK constitutional law expert at Royal Holloway University London, told ABC News there would have been “extensive conversations” between Downing Street and the King about how to use this visit to mend the tense relationship.

“Clearly the UK has had to think about, as has every other country, how to essentially deal with President Trump,” he said.

“This has been a tool that the UK has been able to use to have the monarchy involved in this and to perhaps have the monarchy involved to a greater extent than they might have done with other US presidents.”

Dr Prescott said last year’s second state visit was the royal family’s way of helping “the UK government in its foreign policy objectives”.

He said no other country could offer a state visit in the same way with all the “pomp and splendour” and a relationship with “arguably the most famous family in the world”.

The King urged to meet Epstein survivors 

Meanwhile, a Democratic congressman has written to the King, asking him to meet with the survivors of late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during the state visit.

Ro Khanna, who co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, encouraged the King to privately meet with victims and survivors to hear “how powerful individuals and institutions failed them”.

“Epstein’s network had significant ties to the United Kingdom through Ghislaine Maxwell, through Epstein’s relationships with British public figures, and through the social and political circles in which he operated,” he wrote.

“Additionally, members of Congress have sought testimony from both Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson regarding their respective ties to Jeffrey Epstein. 

“A meeting with survivors would provide an opportunity to identify any additional information British institutions and individuals may be able to share and open a dialogue about whether there will be a full accounting of how Epstein’s and Maxwell’s network operated in the United Kingdom.”

Full details of the state visit in late April have not yet been revealed but it will celebrate the 250^th anniversary of American Independence.

After the United States, the King will travel on to Bermuda marking his first royal visit as monarch to a British overseas territory.