The king, apparently, is the best ambassador the United Kingdom has. And sure – so far his state visit to Washington DC has been an exercise in charm and diplomacy. His jokes at the state banquet on Tuesday night landed well (the meal was a “very considerable improvement on the Boston Tea Party”); and at a garden party in the British embassy the DC power brokers were desperate to catch a glimpse of Britain’s king Charles III. Here is a real British asset in a smart suit with a patrician drawl. And the Americans love him.
But not only that. Contained within all the niceties, as commentators breathlessly point out, the king was actually admonishing US president Donald Trump. “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence,” he said. “The actions of this great nation matter even more.”
Encoded elsewhere in his address were appeals to the rule of law and the sanctity of Nato and warnings of the knock-on effects of global conflict. So deft, subtle, understated, English ... powerful? “TWO KINGS”, the White House tweeted with a picture of Charles and Trump. And so special relationship repaired. All in a day’s work.
It’s a nice fantasy. But total garbage of course. Fine, Trump does seem to really like the monarchy and in these tricky times it makes sense to send over Charles rather than Keir Starmer, who Trump instinctively loathes. In fact, there are very few with any hope of smoothing the whole mess over. And the king really is the best on the British team sheet, no? We could spend hours trading fawning articles about the mystical American fascination with the English crown. Yes, sure – whatever.
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But it was only in September the crown last rolled out the red carpet for the US president. On his second state visit Trump was treated with a trip to Windsor and a state banquet, and all the pageantry the institution is capable of mustering. In fact, it was all so over-the-top you might be forgiven for thinking Trump was there to be coronated himself. The calculus was simple and appealed to the occasionally toddler-like Trumpian impulses: make Trump feel personally special and the relationship will take care of itself.
[ Trump hosts ‘great guy’ Charles amid strain in US-UK relationsOpens in new window ]
And what, exactly, happened next? Well, Trump’s invectives against Starmer did not stop. He recently likened the British prime minister to the appeasing Neville Chamberlain; he has twice said he is “no Winston Churchill”. He has also denigrated the militaristic fortitude of the United Kingdom at every turn, and has tried to harass the country into bombing Iran. And what did that lavish treatment from the crown in September change about Trump’s Ukraine policy? If much has changed I certainly haven’t noticed.
In Trump’s universe, once-valuable soft-power levers are redundant.
Ireland should be aware of this too. Long gone are the days when Ireland was anointed as the world’s “unlikely diplomatic superpower” for all of its good vibes and soft power credentials. Joe Biden might have threatened the UK-US trade deal if the Brexiteers didn’t behave over the issue of the Border in Ireland. But you know that grand old cliche about the past being a foreign country? Write it down and don’t forget it.
None of this means the relationship between the US and the UK, and between the US and Ireland, is totally and irredeemably destroyed. Because of course these things don’t just operate at a White House-to-Number 10 level while Washington to Dublin is not the sole channel for American-Irish exchange.
[ The Irish Times view on the US and the UK: the special relationship is no moreOpens in new window ]
Commercial interests still matter. The owners of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Everton football clubs, for example, are all based in the US. Hollywood, meanwhile, is full of Irish actors.
There is a counterargument that Britain has done a good job at squandering its own reputation and attendant soft power what with the former British prince Andrew and his ties to Epstein and the failures of Brexit. It’s not quite right, though. Hear it from a Brit, it sounds pitifully self-hating. Coming from an outsider and it can often sound mocking.
But more than anything the argument ascribes the middling powers of this world with more agency than they possess. The truth is Britain could have behaved like a perfect sweetie on the international stage or like a deranged tyrant and the outcome would be the same. Trump is going to do what he wants and there’s damn little the king can do about it. The futility of it all is almost relaxing.
