King Charles has arrived in the UK alongside his wife, Queen Camilla, to meet withDonald Trump. However, all their joint meetings will take place in private. Both men made the mutual decision not to have cameras film their discussions live.
Reports revealed that the decision was made amid fears that Trump could berate King Charles in public in a similar way to his tense encounter with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year. After that Oval Office meeting, Trump said Zelenskyy could 'come back when he is ready for Peace' in a post that drew widespread criticism.
King Charles and Trump will still be photographed together ahead of their private conversations. However, all their talks will take place behind closed doors. The meeting between the two key figures from the UK and the US is expected to be significant for the future of the two countries' relationship.
According toThe Guardian, there is hope that King Charles could help temper Trump's more aggressive statements and criticisms of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves regarding the Iran war.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will join King Charles and Trump during their meeting. She is expected to step in if the conversation becomes awkward. 'She's ready to leap into action as a human shield for the king should Trump start criticising Starmer or the UK more generally, as he is prone to do,' a source said.
A government insider believes that King Charles will be able to handle anything related to his meeting with Trump. After all, he has met so many foreign leaders with different personalities, and he has never had a hard time.
'He's had decades of experience of this sort of stuff, including meeting some quite difficult characters. He reads all his papers and knows exactly what is going on. We think he'll be just fine,' the insider said.
Others predicted that the meeting of the two key personalities would be 'high risk, high stakes, and high opportunity.' It comes at a challenging time for both the UK and the US.
'The visit comes in the biggest crisis in Anglo-American relations for a century. We're dealing with a very unpredictable president,' royal author Andrew Lowniesaid.
Royal historian Ed Owens said that the meeting between King Charles and Trump will take place at a highly unusual time due to ongoing political tensions, and is widely seen as a major global diplomatic moment.
Source: International Business Times UK
