King Charles visits Trump: what are the potential pitfalls for the monarch?

1. Tricky visit with unprecedented degree of difficulty The contemporary political historian Anthony Seldon said the 27-30 April visit was “obviously beyond tricky” and had a “degree of difficulty” vastly surpassing any official visit since the first one by a reigning monarch, when George VI met Franklin D Roosevelt to persuade him to enter the second world war. “Because you are dealing with somebody who is so unpredictable,” Seldon said. He said relations with the US had gone through difficult periods before: Lyndon B Johnson and Harold Wilson, Richard Nixon and Edward Heath, Dwight Eisenhower and Anthony Eden – the latter leading to Eden’s ousting after the Suez crisis. “So it’s a tense moment. But there have been tense moments in the past. And it will be fascinating to see how the monarch plays it.” Seldon said since Charles was “probably the one person in the world who Trump doesn’t want to offend”, the president would operate “within tramlines”, thus giving the king “more leeway”. On the “most important visit of the king’s life”, Charles could “either be very cautious and safe, or he can remind the American people of the basis on which the United States was formed 250 years ago”, Seldon added. He said values shared with the UK were of a country that moved away from arbitrary power on the basis of separation of powers, with the bill of rights at its heart; individual rights, limited government, rule of law, enlightenment values. …