Analysis
King’s
environmental views will never face a more obdurate listener than Trump
Fiona
Harvey
Environment
editor
US
president has all but declared war on nature but that will not stop Charles
quietly pressing his case during state visit
Tue 28
Apr 2026 13.21 EDT
Of the
many clashes in worldview between King Charles III and Donald Trump, the
greatest is on an issue the White House has sought to silence: the future of
the planet.
For more
than 50 years, as the Prince of Wales, the environmentally minded Charles spoke
out often, addressing UN summits and closed gatherings alike, to urge better
guardianship of nature and strong action on the climate.
The royal
visit to Washington will be no exception. The Guardian understands the king
will not be silent on green issues, despite concerns within the British
government, and sources say the king is likely to touch on the environment in
public as well as private. Civil society groups have been in touch with the
palace over the potential inclusion of references to the climate and nature in
the king’s speech to Congress on Tuesday afternoon.
Charles’s
advocacy has never faced a more obdurate listener. Trump has all but declared
war on the climate and nature, withdrawing the US from international climate
agreements, halting progress on renewable energy and boosting coal, while
opening drilling on public lands, cutting nature protection, bullying other
countries who want climate action, sacking scientists and erasing mention of
the climate from government communications.
There is
little common ground between the UK and the US on the climate and environment,
and the UK response has been to try to work around the problem in international
forums, rather than force a showdown.
Charles
is said to be skilled at broaching the subject in diplomatic ways, which he is
likely to attempt with the US president and other prominent members of US
government and business. “The king loves the natural world and understands that
everything we have depends utterly on it,” said Ben Goldsmith, the longtime
environmental advocate and former chair of the Conservative Environment
Network. “So I’d be amazed if he doesn’t raise the topic with President Trump.”
As well
as expressing his own longstanding views, the king would be reflecting those of
his nation, said Robbie MacPherson, a Kennedy scholar at Harvard University and
the former head of the UK parliament’s all-party group on climate. “People
across the UK have chosen that a clean energy transition is their desired road
to the future. The king should represent that view to foreign leaders,
including those who think that rolling back on environment and clean energy
action is the correct course,” he said.
Will the
president listen? Going by previous experience, it seems unlikely, according to
Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser now with the
American University. “Sadly, King Charles would be wasting his breath bringing
up climate with Trump, but one hopes he features climate action prominently as
an issue critical to public safety and global security.”
Goldsmith
said conservatives in the US had a “long and rich history of protecting
America’s natural treasures”, and Trump’s political hero Teddy Roosevelt was
the father of the US national park system. “Today, the states doing most for
wildlife are arguably Florida and Texas, both of which are securing large areas
of land for rewilding and permanent protection. If Trump wants to “make America
beautiful again”, which is the name of one of his recent pronouncements, some
focus on nature would seem an obvious move.”
MacPherson
was also more hopeful, though for different reasons. “Across America, the clean
energy transition and action to protect nature is happening,” he said. “A
temporary shift in federal government delivery and blocking should not stop the
long-lasting green special relationship shared between the UK and the US.”
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