As the British royals welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump to Windsor Castle for his much-ballyhooed second state visit, the hazy concept of soft diplomacy came into sharp focus.
The invitation was sent by King Charles, but the request and the strategy came from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a man on his back foot trying to secure trade gains from a capricious administration.
The rules of engagement in Trump-era politics change from moment to moment. But the British royal family, famously apolitical and non-partisan, can fall back on its thousand-year heritage and put on a pomp-filled display. In this mission, they had a secret weapon: The charismatic power-forward lineup of the Prince and Princess of Wales, whose public approval ratings sit at 71 per cent and 72 per cent respectively.
Since Kate announced her remission from cancer in January, she has been taking on more royal duties. But during this state visit she was front and centre, and her star wattage was off the charts.
Trump is thought to have said “so beautiful” to Kate when she and William greeted him and Melania at their helicopter, before escorting them to see the King and Queen.
Later, at the state banquet, Trump was seated next to Kate, who put the tiara in “tiara diplomacy,” wearing the Cambridge Lover’s Knot.
She was regal but demure in a gold lace Phillipa Lepley coat and gown, long-sleeved and high-necked like her wedding dress from 2011 and perhaps an armour of sorts, considering her seatmate.
In his speech at the banquet, Trump described Kate as “so radiant, so healthy, it’s so beautiful.” It is not generally seen as appropriate to comment on how healthy a woman who has just publicly battled cancer looks, but also Trump predictably missed the point of Catherine, Princess of Wales.
Her true mastery is not her beauty or her style; it’s that she intrinsically understands the protocol and public-relations intricacies of being a modern member of the royal family, especially one who is destined to become queen. And how she navigates them with ease.
The whole mood of the state visit shifted when Kate took Melania to Frogmore Cottage grounds on Thursday to meet a scout troop (actually a squirrel troop, in the British designation). Kate, in her element as host, set a tone.
Yes, her outfit was impeccable: a brown skirt by American heritage designer Ralph Lauren, which Melania also wore, and an olive suede jacket accented with a bow-tied scarf from her visit to a heritage textile mill a fortnight before.
But the resulting photos of her and Melania playing with children, in which the typically unsmiling first lady appeared uncharacteristically relaxed — infused a genuine softness to the entire visit.
The women offered the kids a snack made with honey from Kate’s Anmer Hall home, and jars of honey that Melania had brought from the White House. Forget tiara diplomacy; honey diplomacy is where it’s at now.
Reactions to the visit from pundits and British subjects were mixed. Some thought the royals were flawless in their displays of pageantry, doing their duty to woo the pomp-loving Americans’ favour. But many felt the royals “indulged” and “flattered” Trump with gilded carriages, cannon salutes and fly-bys. A recent YouGov poll of Britons found that 45 per cent of the population was against a second state visit for Trump.
In the particularly scathing words of Daily Beast European editor Tom Sykes: “It was not a welcome; it was a deliberate performative subservience.”
The Guardian conceded that “in this new era minimizing damage and buying time look like wins” but concluded the “absurd deference only makes Britain look smaller.”
Soft diplomacy is often cited as the main reason for the monarchy’s continued existence, and this is especially important to the King. “Mr. Trump’s Windsor welcome will be a boost to royal relevance, too, a showcase for the international statesmanship of Charles,” wrote Tina Brown, author of “The Palace Papers” in the New York Times. “Charles may be the last man standing who can exude global gravitas in the dumpster fire of our digitally dominated world.”
Charles has had a long time to learn soft diplomacy. His grandparents set a steady-handed example for Britons during the Blitz, riding out the war in central London. Queen Elizabeth II made the Commonwealth the focus of her 70-year reign; as countries achieved independence from colonial rule, she stitched them together as a block of nations with a joined voice. One of her soft diplomacy highlights was welcoming Nelson Mandela for a state visit in 1996.
When Charles acceded to the throne, there were concerns his prior outspokenness — on environmental issues, on food additive safety, against modern architecture — might hamper the hidden gears of soft diplomacy. Indeed, in 2019 at the last Trump state visit, he still thought there may be a way to reach the American president with a climate change message. But he has become, as Brown observed, a sovereign who follows the rules.
However it’s Kate, who almost never puts a foot wrong despite the spotlight’s intense glare, who’s the real ringer in the royal family’s soft diplomacy team. William, who has also received Trump’s stamp of approval, having been called “handsome,” is a close second.
Kate has always been good at curating imagery for both sides of her job. She gives us epic gowns and tiaras for formal appearances and seamlessly takes on casual royal duties in crisp business daywear or outdoorsy or sporty gear.
It’s not a reduction to discuss the princess’s work in terms of fashion diplomacy. She is often seen but not heard, so she speaks with her clothes, even though the palace no longer publishes details of her outfits, in order to keep the focus on the organizations her engagements highlight. Like her mother-in-law Princess Diana before her, Kate understands that visual presentation is part of the ephemeral magic of the royalty, the X-factor.
The glittering banquets, the medieval suits of armour, the battalions of butlers and Beefeaters are only effective tools in our modern world if the people with the titles and tiaras have star power.
The cameras love who they love. People respond to the brightest light in any room. Soft diplomacy cannot function without charm; gilded tchotchkes alone don’t cut it. It seems to have worked on Trump: he called the visit “one of the highest honours of my life.”
