King Charles to make rare speech to U.S. Congress as he visits Washington

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There was a lot of curiosity ahead of the visit over whether King Charles might see Prince Harry during the trip.

But there is no sense that Charles will meet with his younger son. Harry has a strained relationship with his father and settled in California with his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, after they stepped back from being working members of the Royal Family in 2020.

This is a very short state visit, Toronto-based author and historian Carolyn Harris told me when we chatted ahead of the visit last week, and there's likely to be a strong emphasis on keeping the focus on commemorations of the U.S.'s 250th anniversary of independence.

"If Prince Harry and Meghan … were invited to the state dinner for instance, the press would completely focus on Harry and Meghan, their interactions with King Charles and Queen Camilla, and it would take the focus off the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom," Harris said.

To try to affect family reconciliation in the midst of "an already delicate diplomatic environment" would be very challenging, she added.

"The focus would be on King Charles III as a father and grandfather, rather than on King Charles III as sovereign, representing the United Kingdom as head of state."

King Charles has faced some calls on Capitol Hill to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein while he is in the U.S.

The scandal involving the late convicted sex offender has ensnared his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, who was arrested in February over misconduct allegations, which he denies.

However, Epstein survivors met this morning with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, of California. In March, Khanna sent a letter requesting the King meet privately with the survivors during his state visit. 

Khanna says that request was declined but he also told reporters this morning that the King is likely to make a reference to them in his address this afternoon to Congress. 

"I really was hopeful that he would have met the survivors," Khanna said. "I think that would have been an incredibly important gesture, especially given his brother is directly implicated and there are a lot of questions about what the Royal Family knew. But at the very least, he needs to address that when he speaks to the Congress."

King Charles has now arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where he's taking part in bipartisan leadership meeting ahead of a joint session of Congress.

The King's speech to the U.S. Congress later this afternoon will be highly scrutinized for what it says — and doesn't say.

Given the strained relations between the U.S. And the U.K. Right now, there has been much speculation about just how Charles will address the current state of affairs between the two longstanding transatlantic allies.

Buckingham Palace has offered some insight, noting that the King will speak of "reconciliation and renewal" in the relationship between the two countries, something he will describe as "one of the greatest alliances in human history."

I'm Lisa Xing, covering the King's state visit to the U.S. Capital. 

I'm currently right in front of the Capitol building. For the last several hours, more and more security has been arriving, ahead of Charles's visit and planned speech to Congress. 

I can hear helicopters overhead and armoured vehicles have pulled up. Various routes in the surrounding area have been blocked, too.

Security for this visit was already going to be high, but it's likely even tighter after the weekend shooting at the White House Correspondents' dinner, which was attended by Trump.

Trump gave the King a letter by John Adams, the first U.S. Ambassador to the U.K., written to John Jay, the American foreign secretary. 

Adams recounts meeting King George III — a royal figure whom American revolutionaries of the time branded "a tyrant" — for the first time at St. James's Palace.

According to a description provided by Buckingham Palace, the letter describes "a strong undercurrent of emotion as the King and his former subject — once bitter enemies — met face to face, as statesmen."

In meeting George III, Adams said he promised to restore friendship between the two nations despite some bad blood over the Revolutionary War.

The King responded that although he was "the last to consent to the separation," he would be the first to foster U.S. Friendship. Adams notes in the letter that this experience might prove useful to later diplomats.

Melania Trump gave Queen Camilla six Tiffany's sterling silver teaspoons, engraved with Camilla's royal cypher, and some White House honey. The two couples toured the presidential beehives yesterday, partly because Camilla has an interest in beekeeping.

It's customary for heads of state to exchange gifts during visits like this. 

Buckingham Palace helpfully sent along a list of what the two sides have given each other. 

The King gave the president a framed copy of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk, the imposing desk where Trump and many previous presidents have sat while in the Oval Office.

The desk is named after the British ship HMS Resolute. Canadian history buffs will know that the vessel became stuck in the ice while searching for the lost Franklin expedition and was subsequently abandoned in Arctic waters.

American whalers eventually recovered the ship, refitted it and returned it to the U.K. As a goodwill gesture to Queen Victoria.

After its service in the Royal Navy ended, the British decommissioned the ship and built three desks from its timber. One of them was given to then-U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.

Meanwhile, the Queen gave Melania Trump a brooch by British artist Fiona Rae.

The Associated Press

Charles and Camilla have left the White House and are headed to the U.S. Capitol, where the King will soon deliver a rare address to Congress, scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.

As the U.S. President and his wife escorted the royals to their waiting limousine, Trump told reporters the meeting with Charles was "really good" and said the King is a "fantastic person."

"They're incredible people and it's a real honour," he said.

The president has made a habit during his second term of turning Oval Office meetings with foreign officials into freewheeling events full of criticism about how leaders are managing their national affairs.

But Tuesday's Oval Office meeting was held largely out of public view, reducing the potential of such an exchange with the King.

Earlier today, when Trump spoke about his mother's Scottish upbringing and her love of Queen Elizabeth, he spoke briefly about his parents' 63-year marriage and made a quip about his own. 

Turning to Melania on his right, the president said, "And excuse me if you don't mind, that's a record we won't be able to match, darling." 

Melania, until then inscrutable, could be seen chuckling below her sharp straw canotier hat. The couple have been married for more than 21 years.

"We'll do well, but we're not going to do that well," Trump added.

Only days ago, the president had once again called for the firing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made about Trump and his wife's 23-year age gap, calling Melania an "expectant widow." 

The joke was ill-timed, airing Thursday, two days before an armed suspect attempted to enter the hotel ballroom where Trump and Melania were attending the White House correspondents' dinner on Saturday. 

Monday, Melania wrote in a post on X that "people like Kimmel shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate."

"His monologue about my family isn't comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America."

Trump claimed Kimmel's joke was a "call to violence," in a post on Truth Social on Monday afternoon.

"This is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC," he wrote.

In response, Kimmel described the joke during his Monday night monologue as a light roast about the couple's age difference and "not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination."

Even in a highly scripted state visit, there were flashes of spontaneity between King Charles and Donald Trump.

Historian Carolyn Harris says those moments — including the King smiling and chuckling during Trump's remarks, namely when he commented on Charles's "very elegant" accent — are not unusual.

She drew a parallel to Queen Elizabeth's 2007 visit, when former president George W. Bush misspoke about the year of her previous trip, which had been in 1976, though Bush said "1776," instead, the year of the American Revolution — a moment the Queen later joked about in a speech herself.

"There’s a lot of interest in that,” Harris said of these unscripted exchanges.

"You could really hear the deep respect coming from the U.S. President to the Royal Family, and that's evident in all that is taking place right now," she added. 

King hails ‘strong and free’ Canada in historic throne speech

King Charles opened Canada’s 45th Parliament with a throne speech that celebrated Canada’s ‘unique identity’ and sovereignty. Nodding to Canada-U.S. Tensions, the speech urged Canadians to ‘build new alliances’ and a new economy that works for all.

Prime Minister Mark Carney leaned on the King last spring to make the case for Canadian sovereignty when he delivered the throne speech.

Charles dramatically ended his remarks invoking the national anthem: "The True North is indeed strong and free!"

As Janet notes, Charles has made a number of Canadian gestures since the Trump trade war erupted. 

The monarch wore his Canadian medals during a high-profile military visit, planted a maple tree on the grounds of Buckingham Palace and granted his personal Canadian liaison and senior protocol officer in Parliament a sword — a symbolic gesture that carried additional meaning when Trump was launching increasingly forceful annexationist taunts.

The late Queen Elizabeth wore a sapphire snowflake brooch gifted to her by Canada's Governor General when she met with Trump in July 2018 — when Canada and the U.S. Were sparring over his first-term steel and aluminum tariffs and the fraught NAFTA renegotiation talks

That was seen as an act of brooch warfare, if you will.

Will Camilla wear anything from the royal Canadian collection during this four-day trip? Will there be any reference to Canada while the King and Queen Camilla are stateside? 

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