King
Charles III and Queen Camilla Will Visit D.C., New York and Virginia
The
planned four-day state visit comes at a fraught time in the U.S.-U.K.
relationship, following President Trump’s frequent belittling of the British
prime minister.
Michael
D. Shear
By
Michael D. Shear
Reporting
from London
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/world/europe/king-charles-queen-camilla-us-visit.html
April 14,
2026
King
Charles III and Queen Camilla of Britain will make a four-day visit to the
United States at the end of April to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary of
independence, Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday.
The visit
will begin on April 27 and include a state dinner at the White House, a stop in
New York City where the royal couple will meet with families of 9/11 victims,
and a meeting with Native Americans at a national park in Virginia.
The king
will also deliver a speech to Congress, marking only the second time that a
British monarch has addressed American lawmakers in the chamber. Queen
Elizabeth II, the king’s mother, was the first to do so during a visit to the
United States in 1991.
Diplomats
on both sides of the Atlantic have been working for months to choreograph the
royal trip, which is intended to underscore the close bonds between the two
countries, often referred to as a “special relationship.”
But the
visit comes at a fraught time in relations between the United States and
Britain. President Trump has repeatedly mocked and belittled Prime Minister
Keir Starmer of Britain during the past two months, accusing him of cowardice
for failing to join in America’s war of choice against Iran.
In an
interview earlier this month, Mr. Trump told The Telegraph newspaper that he
believed the king “would have taken a very different stand, but he doesn’t do
that. I mean, he’s a great gentleman.”
The
president’s harsh language about Mr. Starmer and his threats to annihilate
Iranian civilization prompted some British politicians to call on the palace to
cancel the king’s visit. Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrat party,
made that case to Mr. Starmer in Parliament on Monday.
“He is a
dangerous and corrupt gangster, and that is how we must treat him,” Mr. Davey
said of Mr. Trump. “So will the prime minister advise the king to call off his
state visit to Washington before it’s too late? Because I really fear for what
Trump might say or do while our king is forced to stand by his side. We cannot
put His Majesty in that position.”
The prime
minister responded by calling the president’s language about Iran “wrong” but
saying that “what the monarchy is able to do through the bonds that they build
is reach through the decades.” He added that “the purpose of the visit is to
mark the 250th anniversary of the relationship between our country and the
United States.”
After the
events at the White House and Capitol Hill, the king and queen will travel to
New York. In addition to marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the
king will meet with business and financial leaders and will visit a grass-roots
organization that mentors children. The queen, who has made literacy one of her
priorities, will attend an event to celebrate the 100th birthday of Winnie the
Pooh, the palace said.
In
Virginia, the royal couple will watch performances by Appalachian cultural
groups and attend what palace officials described as a “block party” as part of
the American 250th anniversary celebrations.
“The
visit will be an opportunity to recognize the shared history of our two
nations,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement, “the breadth of the economic,
security and cultural relationship that has developed since then; and the deep
people-to-people connections which unite communities.”
After
leaving the United States, the king and queen will travel to Bermuda for the
king’s first visit as monarch to a British overseas territory.
Michael
D. Shear is the chief U.K. correspondent for The New York Times, covering
British politics and culture and diplomacy around the world.
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