With sharp speech, King Charles just showed the point behind the pomp

3 hours ago 1

London: The British have agonised for months about the time and money being lavished on Donald Trump for his second state visit to their country, wondering why they are treating the United States president with such honour.

King Charles just showed them that pomp has a point. And it can be a very sharp one, when delivered so smoothly that nobody feels any pain.

King Charles III and US President Donald Trump inspect a guard of honour at Windsor Castle.

There was immense goodwill during Trump’s state visit at Windsor Castle on Wednesday ahead of the state banquet honouring Trump, and Charles seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Watch the sword!” the King joked with Trump after they reviewed the guard of honour and faced the guard captain, who raised the weapon to signal the end of the inspection. Trump came face to face with military discipline, tradition and duty.

There was some steel, and some sharpness in the King’s address to Trump at the banquet, almost as if he were holding up the same weapon with his words. He reminded Trump of the military alliance between the US and the United Kingdom, and the way the allies had defeated tyranny – without needing to name Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 50 words, Charles sent a message to Trump about helping Ukraine, preventing threats to Europe, cementing the AUKUS pact and working with Australia. It seemed to be precisely the message British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wanted Trump to hear.

It is not unusual for the King to compress a big message into one of his speeches: he did so on climate change in his address to parliament in Canberra in October, although it was overshadowed by interjections from Senator Lidia Thorpe.

With Trump, however, the King was more pointed. It was unusual for an address of this kind to mention a defence pact such as AUKUS, with the added reference to Australia. Why even mention it?

The remark showed two things. The first is that the British feel they need to keep reminding Trump that AUKUS matters, signalling their anxiety about his commitment to the pact. The second is that the British want to reinforce the fact that Australia is part of the deal.

King Charles and Donald Trump dine together at the State Banquet at Windsor Castle.

This will help Anthony Albanese, even if only slightly, should the prime minister meet Trump in New York next week. All Albanese has to do is tell Trump how glad he was to hear the King mention Australia and AUKUS. The submarine deal will be suddenly wrapped in the magic of the monarchy.

Albanese can thank Starmer, a close ally and friend among world leaders, if and when he sees him in the UK after leaving New York, in the days after the likely meeting with Trump.

Trump’s state visit to the UK is not over yet. The ceremonies at Windsor Castle are to be followed by a day of meetings with Starmer on Thursday at Chequers, the prime minister’s official residence outside London. This is where the tech billionaires in the president’s delegation – from Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI – will talk about big investment deals.

Starmer is looking for economic growth when the British economy is flat-lining, and he sees artificial intelligence as a source of that growth. He wants to build the data centres to run the AI services of the future, and he needs to build the power stations – most likely, nuclear – to power the data centres and the rest of the electricity grid.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives at the state banquet on Wednesday.

Whether Starmer can make any progress with Trump on trade, however, is another matter. The president wants to generate serious revenue from tariffs, without admitting that American households ultimately pay when the added cost is passed on to consumers.

Starmer seems unlikely to gain a better deal on steel tariffs and will have to accept the baseline tariff of 10 per cent on most goods. Even a royal banquet will not change that. This should put the Australian debate in perspective because there is little prospect that Australia can get a better deal if the UK cannot.

Trump’s visit to the UK is not popular with the British public. A YouGov and Sky poll this week found that 45 per cent of voters think the president should not have been invited. Only 30 per cent say it was the right thing to do, while 25 per cent are unsure.

Thousands rallied to protest against Trump’s arrival. One of the protesters, Jayne Evans, a retired journalist from Norwich, said she joined the protest because Trump frightened her. “The thing that really, really bothers me is how he’s shutting down the truth,” she said.

“He’s twisting the truth. It’s a playbook that goes back in history. He’s following a well-worn playbook in silencing people that he doesn’t like.”

But there were Trump supporters on the streets as well. They like what they hear from Trump about defending borders and turning away migrants. They also like his rejection of net zero targets to reduce carbon emissions.

The Metropolitan Police estimated about 5000 people attended the Stop Trump rally in London, which was timed to coincide with the president’s time at Windsor Castle. The conservative advocates who welcomed Trump, however, attracted 110,000 to 150,000 people to their Unite the Kingdom rally in London last weekend – again, using estimates from the Met Police.

Last weekend’s rally was branded as a free speech protest, not a Trump welcome. Even so, the numbers suggest the conservative side of British politics mobilised more people than the progressive side.

All up, it has been a warm welcome for Trump. Will it help Ukraine? Will it help Australia and AUKUS? Everything now depends on whether the president remembers the point behind the pomp.

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