Want to butter up Donald Trump? Roll out King Charles – POLITICO

Prime ministers don’t boss kings around, but, said Harman: “Ultimately, the royals are public servants. If the state wants them to entertain and talk to, meet and get on with whoever’s in the White House, then it’s their duty to do what the elected government wants them to do.” 

Pomp and ceremony 

A fresh Trump visit to the U.K. is unlikely to be free of controversy.

Just last week, the opposition Liberal Democrats said the firebrand U.S. president — a “threat to peace and prosperity” — should not be afforded the trappings of another state visit unless he agrees to a sit-down summit with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Even so, the British government will be tempted to pull out all the stops for the U.S. president.

“For someone like Trump, where pride is so important and his image is so important, that pomp and ceremony will be really powerful just for his affinity,” said Aspinall. She argued that the royals could even help Britain stand out among republican European nations amid major geopolitical tensions. “If there was a trade war, he might be more sympathetic to the U.K.,” she argued. 

“Nobody will be imagining that it’s magic and he [Charles] can do things that other people can’t, but it will enhance the relationship at appropriate times, and he will want to do that quite naturally,” said the ex-FCDO official of the monarch.

With a long list of British worries about the incoming president, Starmer will need all the help he can get.

Anne McElvoy and Peter Snowdon contributed to this report.