King Charles III brought a jovial tone to Tuesday night’s state dinner, joking that President Trump “would be speaking French” if it were not for the U.K.
His lighthearted speech referred back to a comment Trump made about World War II to European leaders in January, when he said they would be speaking German if it were not for the U.S.
Charles joked to a laughing Trump: “Dare I say that, if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French.”
Charles’s comment came after his address to Congress, in which he spoke about the U.S. and the U.K.’s long-held alliance. The rare address was the second time in history that a British monarch has addressed Congress.
President Trump also held a closed-door meeting with Charles in the Oval Office on Tuesday, amid tense relations between the U.S. and U.K. over the Iran war.
Charles later returned to the White House for the state dinner, where Trump alluded to Charles’s feelings about Iran in what appeared to violate the convention of not revealing what a monarch has said in a private meeting.
Trump told the banquet: “We’re doing very well, we have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we’re never going to let that opponent ever — Charles agrees with me, even more than I do — we’re never going to let that opponent have nuclear weapons.”
Today, Charles and Queen Camilla are set to travel from Washington, D.C., to New York City for a series of events, including a visit to the 9/11 Memorial at One World Trade Center alongside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
However, Charles and Mamdani will not have a private meeting, the mayor’s team confirmed.
The four-day trip will conclude on Thursday, April 30.
