Robert Hardman: Royal Correspondent on King Charles' visit to the US to meet with Donald Trump

Amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East is an upcoming Royal visit to the United States.  

King Charles will address a joint meeting of Congress as well as meet privately with US President Donald Trump later this month.  

British lawmakers are questioning whether the visit should go ahead, as the relationship between the two countries is unusually delicate.  

Royal Correspondent Robert Hardman told Mike Hosking that any trip holds a risk, but cancelling this visit would be a greater risk.  

He says that Trump is a royalist, and on previous visits has gone out of his way not to embarrass the Royals while they’re there.  

“Now, of course, what he says before and after is another matter, but I don't think there's going to be a toe-curling moment for the King while he's on the ground.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Royal visit. The status either a storic of genius, of course,
or super awkward. King Charles will meet Trump privately address
Congress later on this month as well. Robert Harman, royal correspondent, beck.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
With US morning.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Wellike from the royal perspective, what is the risk of
this trip?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Well, there's always a risk on any trip, but I
think the greater risk would be to not go on
this trip. There are voices in Britain saying that the
King should be canceling this visit because of mister Trump's
increasingly erratic comments about Britain, Britain's armed forces and the Pope,
and who knows what else. But the watchword at the

(00:36):
Palace is always keep calm, carry on.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
And I think the one thing we need to.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Bear in mind is that Donald Trump is a huge
Royalist and he is very keen not to embarrass the
King and Queen. I went to see him recently three
months ago for my book I've just written on Elizabeth,
and I talked to him at length about the royal
family and he's absolutely devoted to not just to the

(01:06):
late Queen but to the King, and we have seen
that on the previous visits.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
To meet the royal family in London.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
He's been, he's always he's always gone out of his
way not to not to do anything to embarrass the
Royals while he's there. Now, of course what he says
before and after is another matter, but I don't think
there's going to be a toe curling moment for the
king while he's on the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Is this the real value of royal diplomacy in that sense?
If he can smooth the waters, that's why we had
the Royals.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, I mean there is an element of that. I mean,
if you think back in history seventy years since the
seuz Fiatsco, when Britain, France and Israel hatched a completely
disastrous scheme to try and annex the seuiz Canan off Egypt.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
The rest of the world was very cross. Washington certainly was,
and even thrown to be value the pan Washington and London.
A loggerheads spread after that, What do we do?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
We sent a queen over on a state visit to
Washington ten months later.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
And it was a great success. So you know, there
is there is form, if you like, for the Royals.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Being able to act as soothing balm, if you like,
sort of know, they're good at mending fences.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
What's your insight into Trump having spent time with them recently?
Is he mad or just excentric?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
More eccentric than mad. I mean, it was.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
It was a very colorful weekend. Didn't get off to
a great start, he said.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I'm not I don't want to do an interview. I'm
here to play golf, he said.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
When I met him in his golf club, and he
was rather appalled when I told him that I didn't
play golf.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
You're British and you don't play golf.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
But I explained that I just wanted to talk to
him about the late Queen, you know that on that
he was he was just very happy to kind of
reminisce about his first meeting whether he said it was
meant to own the last fifteen minutes when they first
met in twenty eighteen. In the end, they spent nearly
an hour together because, among other things, they bonded over

(03:08):
the fact they both had Scottish mothers. President Trump's mother
is a MacLeod from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland,
and also the fact that they both had quite considerable
landholdings in Scotland. He's got some golf courses. She of
course has about moral of states. So they got off
on a good footing. Like I said, I mean, Trump

(03:31):
is very capable of compartmentalizing. You know that he treats
politicians as one breed and the monarchy as another. And
when he came for his state visit to London in
twenty nineteen, he was the last state visitor, as I said,
of the Queen's entire reign, and the mainly got off

(03:52):
the plane, he switched his phone off. There was no tweeting,
there were no funny.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Remarks, you know. I mean when he got back on
the plane again, of course it was this as usual.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
But I think what you find is that of a
certain degree of self power.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's it's all in a.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
You know, gie miracles, but in this fractious and very
odd world, it's, shall we say, a more reliable diplomatic
tool than most.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Good to talk to you, Robert Gowell, Robert Hartman out
of Britain for us this morning. For more from the
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