For the first time in his reign, King Charles is visiting the United States.
The King and Queen Camilla landed in Washington, D.C. on Monday afternoon, kicking off a four-day state visit.
Here are five things to know.
1. King Charles and Camilla are in Washington to celebrate America’s 250th birthday
Avert your eyes, George III: Two-hundred and fifty years after his ancestor lost the American colonies in the Revolutionary War, King Charles will be in the capital to celebrate America’s upcoming 250th birthday.
The king nodded toward this upcoming anniversary — and its measure of how far things have come between the two countries — in a speech he gave at the banquet honouring President Donald Trump’s U.K. visit last year.
“We celebrate a relationship between our two countries that surely neither Washington nor King George III could possibly have imagined,” he said at the time. “The ocean may still divide us, but in so many other ways we are now the closest of kin.”
It’s a gesture with royal precedent, echoing his mother’s trip exactly 40 years ago marking America’s bicentenary in 1976.
2. The visit comes at a moment of tension in the “special relationship”
This royal charm offensive coincides with a period of strain between the American and British governments. President Donald Trump has been vocal in his criticism about Prime Minister Keir Starmer, insulting him as “a coward” and “no Churchill” in recent weeks over a perceived lack of support for the Iran war. He’s also threatened new tariffs and withdrawing U.S. support for Britain’s claim on the Falkland Islands.
Enter King Charles. Trump, a noted royal fan, remains positive toward Britain’s monarch, calling him a “nice guy” in the same Easter speech where he seems to have done a mocking impression of Starmer and joked that the British Navy couldn’t even spare “two old broken-down aircraft carriers” to support his attacks on Iran.
More recently, Trump has been explicit in the soft-power potential His Majesty could wield in repairing the strained relationship.
“Absolutely. He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely, the answer is yes,” Trump told an interviewer who asked him about this last week, adding that he knows Charles “well” and considers him a “brave man.”
3. The visit is going ahead despite heightened security concerns
After a gunman attempted to gain entry to the White House Correspondents Dinner over the weekend, there was a question mark around whether the royal visit would proceed. However, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson confirmed that “after discussions on both sides of the Atlantic” it would go ahead “as planned.” Trump has also said that the King will be “very safe” during his time in the U.S.
According to the BBC, Charles and Camilla reached out privately to Donald and Melania Trump to express their “sympathies” about the apparent attempted assassination.
4. The four-day itinerary includes stops in New York, Virginia and a speech to Congress
On Monday, the royals were greeted by both Trumps when they landed in D.C., where they’ll have a private tea together before joining a garden party. In an echo of the American visit to the U.K. last year, Trump and the King will spend time together while Queen Camilla and first lady Melania do the same.
In Washington, the King will also address a joint session of Congress — just the second time a British monarch has done so — and attend a state dinner in the visitor’s honour.
Later in the week, the King and Queen will visit New York, where they will recognize 25 years since 9/11, and separately will attend events marking areas of special interest: Queen Camilla to one celebrating a “love of literature” and King Charles to meet a youth organization supporting young people. They’ll wrap up the four days with a visit to Virginia, where they’re attending a block party celebrating 250 years of America.
5. This is the first monarch visit to America since 2007
While King Charles has been to the States 19 times, this is his first visit as monarch. It’s also been nearly 20 years since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, paid her last visit to the country.
Of course, there has been a significant royal presence in the United States since 2020, when Prince Harry and his wife and two children relocated to California after quitting full-time royal work. Will father and son, who last saw each other in September, be reunited? It’s almost entirely unlikely, given that this is an official trip and it’s almost certain the monarch wouldn’t want any headlines deflecting from that.
There’s also the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor-sized elephant in the room. Despite calls from two U.S. Congress members for them to meet with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking, the Guardian quotes a source who says Charles and Camilla will not be doing this.
The reason is apparently related to Andrew’s arrest earlier this year for potentially using his public post as a trade envoy to pass confidential information to Epstein: They don’t want to jeopardize any police inquiries or possible legal action or do anything “to the detriment of the survivors themselves in their pursuit of justice.”
