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The ‘Special Relationship’ Is Strained. King Charles to the Rescue?
CNN One Thing
Apr 29, 2026
King Charles is in the midst of a four-day state visit to the US to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence. The visit comes at a time when US-UK relations are notably strained, thanks to the war with Iran and calls for greater Jeffrey Epstein-related accountability. But President Donald Trump is usually receptive to royalty – so will this trip help mend fences, or give European allies more to worry about?
For more: Epstein scandal lingers in background of King Charles’ visit to Washington
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Guest: Jack Blanchard, POLITICO Playbook Author/Managing Editor
Host: David Rind
Producer: Paola Ortiz
Showrunner: Felicia Patinkin
Photo: Henry Nichols/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Episode Transcript
David Rind
00:00:00
Welcome back to One Thing, I'm David Rind and President Donald Trump says he's not a king.
Jack Blanchard
00:00:05
But he sure likes this one. He's doing that sort of YOLO presidency thing where he wants to be collecting these prestigious moments and so on, and I think a British royal state visit is part of that.
David Rind
00:00:16
How King Charles could help smooth over overseas tensions this week. Stick around.
Seargant at Arms
00:00:23
Mr. Speaker, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.
David Rind
00:00:31
That was from May 16th, 1991. George H.W. Bush was president. Home Alone and Silence of the Lambs had just been box office hits. And Britain's Queen Elizabeth II had arrived in the U.S. I'll confess, I was just 14 months old at the time, but it was a historic moment.
Bernie Shaw
00:00:48
Queen Elizabeth made history today on Capitol Hill, becoming the first British monarch to address the United States Congress and the first speaker in the Well of the House permitted to wear a hat.
David Rind
00:00:59
British royal family made many official visits to the U.S. Before this, of course. King George VI ate a hot dog for the first time with FDR on a trip in 1939. In 1985, Princess Diana did a little Saturday night fever dancing with John Travolta at the White House, but this was the first time a royal had given a speech to Congress.
Bob Franklin
00:01:19
'Members were on their best behavior. Not the usual back-slapping here as Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip were escorted to the podium. That would have been a breach of decorum comparable perhaps to the talking hat incident at the White House when the microphones were taller than the Queen.
Queen Elizabeth II
00:01:34
I do hope you can see me today from where you are.
David Rind
00:01:38
There were serious things going on in 1991. Operation Desert Storm had just wrapped up a few months earlier, and even though the royal family does not do politics, Queen Elizabeth wanted to show that the UK was in lockstep with their closest ally.
Queen Elizabeth II
00:01:52
I know that the servicemen and women of Britain and all the members of the coalition were proud to act in a just cause alongside them American comrades.
David Rind
00:02:05
'This week, King Charles became just the second royal to address a joint meeting of Congress, as he continues a four-day state visit to mark America's 250th birthday. He'll also visit New York City and a national park in Virginia. But it's worth noting, all of this pageantry is happening as President Donald Trump continues to bash the UK government and other European countries for not joining in on the war with Iran.
President Donald Trump
00:02:31
You would have thought they would have said, we'd love to send a couple of minesweepers. It's not a big deal. It doesn't cost very much money. But they didn't do that. So, you know.
David Rind
00:02:39
'And his lawmakers and victims call for more Jeffrey Epstein-related accountability, how much fence mending is King Charles going to have to do here? And what kind of influence does the royal family have over American politicians? Let's turn to Jack Blanchard. He is the managing editor and author of Politico Playbook. So, Jack, as I understand it, you covered politics in the UK for many years. Now you cover politics in DC, so it seems like your worlds are really colliding here with this visit, right?
Jack Blanchard
00:03:06
They really are. This is like my Super Bowl moment. Our head of state from the UK is over here and I get to see all the worlds come together. And in fact, we saw that this week at the Garden Party at the British Ambassador's House, which was full of British politicos, American politicos all drinking tea together and chatting about transatlantic politics.
David Rind
00:03:26
Yeah, so we've seen a lot of pomp and circumstance as you and I record this on Tuesday morning. Later today, Charles will address a joint meeting of Congress. There'll be a big state dinner. And I guess I'm wondering, is this just pomp and circumstances or is there actual business that Charles wants to accomplish here?
Jack Blanchard
00:03:43
Well, that's what's so unusual and so interesting about this trip. You know, most British royal overseas visits are all about the pomp and circumstance, and there's not a lot else going on there. This one is completely different because of the circumstances that Charles finds himself in.
Reporter
00:03:59
President Macron has just said in the last hour that he will never join a task force in the Strait of Hormuz until hostility is finished.
President Donald Trump
00:04:08
Who said that?
Reporter
00:04:09
President Macron of France, what's your reaction to that?
President Donald Trump
00:04:12
Well, he'll be out of office very soon, so we'll have to see.
Jack Blanchard
00:04:15
'Obviously, the British-American relationship, which has been so strong for so many decades, has really fallen apart quite dramatically in the last few months since Donald Trump launched his attack on Iran and then became very upset with how many of his European allies did not fulsomely support him in what he was doing.
President Donald Trump
00:04:34
No, I was disappointed because Kiir was willing to send two aircraft carriers after we won, because essentially there's no threat for the aircraft carriers right now. And I said, no, no. We want things sent before the war, not after the war is won.
Jack Blanchard
00:04:50
And we've seen how much ire he's sort of saved in particular for the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
President Donald Trump
00:04:56
And, you know, unfortunately, Keir is not Winston Churchill.
Jack Blanchard
00:04:59
We've never really seen an American president going after a British Prime Minister the way that Trump has gone after Stalin publicly. He said he was no Churchill. Exactly. And he said that several times amongst other things.
President Donald Trump
00:05:10
He says everything beautiful. He's a very nice man with a beautiful family. Everything's perfect, but he doesn't produce.
Jack Blanchard
00:05:18
And has dropped several hints that he's no longer as committed to the NATO security alliance as past American presidents have been. And so Charles suddenly finds himself in the middle of this major diplomatic incident. And he's the guy who appears to be capable of getting through to Trump because while Trump is very upset with the British government, very upset, with Keir Starmer, he retains this warmth and admiration for the British royalty. And so, Charles now has to play sort of chief diplomat for the UK and try and somehow smooth things over.
David Rind
00:05:48
But he's not a diplomat, right? Like the Royals don't do politics explicitly, right. So how does Charles walk that line?
Jack Blanchard
00:05:55
Well, that's an interesting point. Is he a diplomat? I would say he is a diplomate. He's a soft power diplomat and he has been his whole life. I mean, you know, this guy has got a lot of experience of going overseas and meeting with other heads of state and talking to them privately about issues. This is diplomacy in a different form. It happens behind closed doors. There are no press conferences. There are not agreements and announcements, but his whole live he's been building relations with other countries on behalf of Britain. So in some ways he's actually very qualified for this. The difference this time, of course, is that this is Britain's entire security on the line. You know, NATO is the bedrock of what keeps the UK safe from countries like Russia. And so it couldn't be more critically important that Charles somehow manages to pull this off.
David Rind
00:06:38
I mean, why does he have a seemingly special relationship with Trump? You know, obviously, the special relationship between the US and the UK always gets talked about. But what is it about these two guys that they're able to gel?
Jack Blanchard
00:06:52
I am fascinated by the dynamic between these two. On paper, they are absolutely opposites. You have this brash and motor mouthed American president, the real estate guy, we all know what Trump is like. On the other hand, you have this rather socially awkward, painfully aristocratic king, who cares about environmental causes and is just nothing like Trump in so many ways. You'd imagine that they would have nothing in common. And yet...
President Donald Trump
00:07:20
My mother had a crush on Charles. Can you believe it?
Jack Blanchard
00:07:24
If you think about it, they're pretty much exactly the same age, they've both had this very strange life of being born into wealth, they both come to their hugely powerful positions right at the very end of their lives, and they both have this sort of sense of nostalgia about the past, you know, Charles talks a lot about the sort of, he imagines this old style of England, of green and pleasant land with old architecture, Donald Trump has his own version of that, a very American version of it.
President Donald Trump
00:07:50
The bust of your great Prime Minister rests proudly again in the Oval Office. We're very proud to bring it back. We brought it back!
Jack Blanchard
00:08:03
And I think there are ways in which they should be able to connect if they both want to, and I think critically they do both want this trip to go well.
David Rind
00:08:12
Yeah, we just heard Trump welcome Charles at the White House, and he didn't really allude to any of those tensions. Very complimentary. But I guess, if it does go well, how does Charles take that back overseas and help undo some of those tense moments? How does that actually work?
Jack Blanchard
00:08:30
Well, Trump is very much a feelings kind of guy. He's a personal relations kind of a guy, and he's a transactional kind of guys. So if he's feeling better about Britain, stronger about Britain. If Charles has made some points in private about, and in fact, we're gonna hear him make some of these points in his speech to Congress today about how long British and American armed forces have been working together on the battlefield, going all the way back to the world wars, and many more conflicts more recent than that as well, and about how strong they've been together. If some of that lands in Trump's mind, he starts to feel better about Britain, some of the irritation he's been feeling over the last few weeks ebbs away, then you may just see him start to take a slightly different approach because he very much is a feelings kind of guy. He's an instincts kind of a guy.
David Rind
00:09:13
And you do hear that often the last person Trump spoke to is the one that kind of cuts through the most. So just by kind of cementing it here can lead to something down the road, you're saying.
Jack Blanchard
00:09:24
Completely right. Completely right, and the other thing is that Trump enjoys all of the, not just the pomp and ceremony around this, but he enjoys being treated as a sort of equal to the royals, you know, people that we've had these no kings protests, right, about Trump, which he pushes back on very hard, says, I'm not a king, I am not a King, and of course he's not a King. But nevertheless, there's a reason why people are making that accusation about him, and he does obviously have this respect for that sort of regal power. You see it when he with some of the Arabian emirs and so on and you see it when he's with the British royals as well. So Trump wants this whole thing to go well, no president wants a sort of disastrous royal state visit on their hands. They want it to be remembered as having been a success, they want to be seen as being on a level with these regal people and so it's sort of in Trump's interests that this goes according to plan.
David Rind
00:10:13
Yeah, so just by kind of this trip happening at all, you're saying it could benefit both sides.
Jack Blanchard
00:10:19
I think so, exactly. And you see Trump sort of collecting prestige as he's going through this second term, the whole thing with the Nobel Peace Prize that he was so desperate to get. You see him on the pitch at sporting events. He's doing that sort of Yolo presidency thing where he wants to be collecting these prestigious moments and so on. And I think a British royal state visit is part of that. These things go down in history. People have been looking back at the footage of the last time this happened, which was 35 years ago now. Queen Elizabeth came over in 1991, so this is not a common occurrence and Trump wants to be at the center of that because that's the kind of guy he is.
David Rind
00:10:57
When we come back, Jack and I are going to talk about why the monarchy still means so much to Americans today. Stick around. Beyond just the politics though, a visit like this is just kind of awkward if you think about it, right? The king is here to celebrate the independence of a former colony and a war that it lost 250 years ago.
Jack Blanchard
00:11:22
Yeah, in theory it is. I think we've all probably moved on now. When I was at the Royal Garden Party. On Monday evening, you know, one of the British officials at the embassy there was addressing this crowd. Hundreds of people, you now, lots of people from the White House there and so on. And at this point in history, we're kind of joking about it. It was like, we are going to hear the national anthems and I'd like to apologize for the bombs bursting in air and the flair and all of that. And people are laughing about it, like, I think basically people have moved forward now after 250 years and we've such a shared history of alliance since then, you
David Rind
00:11:58
'You mentioned the no-kings protests and obviously the feelings that engenders in some Americans, but yet the royals, the royal family still holds this fascination.
Jack Blanchard
00:12:08
'With Americans. That's what's so interesting. And working here as a Brit, the amount of time people want to talk to you when they hear your British accent, not about politics, but about the royal family is completely extraordinary to me. This doesn't happen in other overseas countries where I've worked in or where I have been on vacation. It always happens in America where people retain this huge fascination, dare I say, bordering on obsession with the British royal family assorted at this. Party where like some of the most powerful people in the country were queuing up for an hour in the baking hot sun just to get close to the king as he proceeded down through the garden. You could see them all, people from the White House, the mayor of Washington, like lots of well-known people were there doing it because they all wanted to be close. And so, you know, it's quite funny to hear people talk, you now, a really good game about independence and being a Republican and and proud of that and good for them. And yet, they all wanted to meet the king and be close to the king and get a selfie near the king and all the rest of it.
David Rind
00:13:11
Yeah, I mean, I saw those pictures. It looked like a giant scrum that most people in high offices would want no part of normally, but they were willing to sit there and kind of go through that.
Jack Blanchard
00:13:20
Exactly, and it was hard to think of anyone else who would get that sort of reaction. Also, interesting thing about it, it was hard to get anyone else to get such a bipartisan response. You know, the people who were turning out to be there, and not necessarily even meet the king, but just be in the same... You know, patch of grass as him, were some of the biggest players on both sides of American politics. You know, Senator Ted Cruz was there and Senator Ruben Gallego was there. Stephen Miller from the White House was there, and Ken Martin from the DNC were there. What other party brings these people together these days in such a partisan place as Washington DC in 2026? I can't think of many draws that do that. And it speaks to something about the soft power that the British royal family still have that that can happen.
David Rind
00:14:05
'Well, yeah, I mean, it seems clear that that soft part does have some kind of impact, no matter what. But I hear about discussions of like a post-monarchy future in the UK, right? Is Charles thinking about that at all in terms of like passing this along and maybe getting to a place like that? But wouldn't that give up a lot of soft power that they currently have?
Jack Blanchard
00:14:26
Yeah, I don't think that's a serious conversation that's happening in Britain anytime soon, because Britain is well aware of the power and influence, as we're just talking about, that the British royal family brings to them, just in terms of tourism numbers, the money it brings in for people coming over who want to go and see. At the various royal sites and it's living history and there is no real appetite, if you poll people in the UK, there's no real apetite to move on from the monarchy system and also what's helpful is that the next in line for the throne, William and of course his wife Kate, are very popular figures. You know, they're probably more popular figures than Charles and so there's a sort of smooth glide path for the royal family for the foreseeable future. Despite all the problems that it has and all the scandals around it that continue to keep emerging, you can still see a pretty solid way forward for them.
David Rind
00:15:15
Well, Jack, thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Jack Blanchard
00:15:18
Yeah, such a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
King Charles
00:15:23
America's words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.
David Rind
00:15:35
In a restrained yet forceful speech to Congress on Tuesday, King Charles did allude to some of the recent tensions between the U.S. And UK.
King Charles
00:15:43
In this unpredictable environment, our alliance cannot rest on past achievements or assume that foundational principles simply endure. As my Prime Minister said last month, ours is an indispensable partnership. We must not disregard everything that has sustained us for the last 80 years. Instead, we must build on it.
David Rind
00:16:12
'He talked about protecting the environment and stressed the need to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia. He also made the case for NATO, recalling how allies came to America's defense after 9-11.
King Charles
00:16:22
From the depths of the Atlantic to the disastrously melting ice caps of the Arctic, the commitment and expertise of the United States Armed Forces and its allies lie at the heart of NATO, pledged to each other's defense, protecting our citizens and interests, keeping North Americans and Europeans safe from our common adversaries.
David Rind
00:16:48
'Jeffrey Epstein or his victims went unmentioned in Charles' speech, though. Victims had been pushing for acknowledgement or an in-person meeting during the King and Queen's trip. CNN reported that such a meeting could impact the legal investigation into the King's brother, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, who was accused of sexual assault by the late Virginia Dufray. The former prince has strenuously denied all accusations against him and insisted he never witnessed or suspected any of the behavior of which the late Epstein is accused. After Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, King Charles expressed concern and said the law must take its course. That's all we've got today. Thank you so much for listening. If you like the show, leave a rating or a review wherever you listen. It helps other people find the show and we just really like hearing from you. Keep them coming. We'll be back on Sunday. I'll talk to you then.
