A great deal was at stake for British imperialism when it decided to play its king in the great geopolitical game in Washington.
But the fact that it was ever considered likely that soaring rhetoric from Charles III before both Houses of Congress might restore the “special relationship” between the UK and the USA only underscored the depth of the crisis facing Britain’s ruling elites.
Charles’s speech was a confused mess of diplomatic and historical evasions on every major issue that he raised, bar one: his prolonged argument for the importance of continued transatlantic ties, based above all on the bloody, decades-long history of British collusion in US-led wars of imperialist conquest.
Charles was the second British monarch ever to address a joint session of Congress, following his mother in May 1991.
Then, Queen Elizabeth II could exploit Britain’s sending 50,000 troops to wage the first Gulf War against Iraq just two months earlier as a basis for hailing the US and the UK’s working “together… to re-establish peace and civil order in the region”, and the importance of the NATO military alliance amid fears of the potential consequences of capitalist restoration in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
The “best progress is made when Europeans and Americans act in concert,” she insisted.
Charles was charged by the Starmer Labour government and Whitehall with delivering the same message, but to do so amid an acute breakdown of relations between US imperialism and both Europe and the UK under Donald Trump’s presidency.
The Financial Times editorialised:
UK-US relations are at their lowest ebb since the 1956 Suez crisis. Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to back the US-Israeli war with Iran has led Trump to denigrate the UK military and belittle the prime minister. A Pentagon memo reportedly floated reviewing the US position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands in retaliation.
Tensions were already simmering after Starmer joined in condemnations of the president’s ambitions towards Greenland. For Buckingham Palace, there were other disincentives. Trump has indicated designs, too, on Canada — of which Charles III also happens to be king.
The monarch’s brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is being investigated for his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Hence the FT’s conclusion: “Yet whatever the outcome of the trip, this is a moment for the UK to start to recalibrate ties… Britain rightly wants to preserve all it can of the special relationship. But in the harsh new world of the 21st century, other connections are going to matter a lot too.”
A tall order for the king, then, which he tried to fulfill by appealing, mostly over Trump’s head and hopefully without rousing him to anger, to Democrat and Republican lawmakers to recognise that the US still needs allies if it is to successfully rule and exploit the world.
Given the occasion of his visit on its 250th anniversary, Charles was forced into tortured efforts to minimise the War of Independence as a brief and unfortunate spat. “With the spirit of 1776 in our minds, we can perhaps agree that we do not always agree – at least in the first instance,” he said. But for the next 250 years, “our destinies as nations have been interlinked.”
This common destiny was attributed firstly to a shared “commitment to uphold democracy” between an unelected parasite and the assembled crooks and political criminals gathered within the “United States Congress, this citadel of democracy…”
It would not have been lost on the Democrats that Charles’ more contemporary citations in regard to this supposed cultural/historical aspect of the “special relationship” was to “what Henry Kissinger described as Kennedy’s ‘soaring vision’ of an Atlantic partnership based on twin pillars: Europe and America.” But this potentially bitter pill was sweetened for Trump’s evangelical fascists by his reference to the importance, “for myself”, of “the Christian faith [as] a firm anchor and daily inspiration that guides us not only personally, but together as members of our community.”
Charles then moved on to the real business at hand. Renewal of what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called “an indispensable partnership… today starts with security,” he declared.
“The United Kingdom recognises that the threats we face demand a transformation in British defence. That is why our country, in order to be fit for the future, has committed to the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War – during part of which, over 50 years ago, I served with immense pride in the Royal Navy, following in the naval footsteps of my father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; my grandfather, King George VI; my great uncle, Lord Mountbatten; and my great grandfather, King George V.”
From the Cold War, Mr Windsor moved on to the more recent wars of imperialist conquest, waged for the past 25 years in the aftermath of 9/11 as a global “war on terror”:
“In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when NATO invoked Article Five for the first time, and the United Nations Security Council was united in the face of terror, we answered the call together – as our people have done so for more than a century, shoulder to shoulder, through two World Wars, the Cold War, Afghanistan and moments that have defined our shared security.”
Given the UK’s refusal to directly join the war against Iran, the king could say nothing more on this subject. His mission, rather, was to make the case for Trump to reverse his distancing of the US from NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
“Today, Mr Speaker, that same, unyielding resolve is needed for the defence of Ukraine and her most courageous people… 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 defence, protecting our citizens and interests, keeping North Americans and Europeans safe from our common adversaries.”
In whatever predatory war the US waged, despite occasional disagreements, it could rely on the UK because, “Our defence, intelligence and security ties are hardwired together through relationships measured not in years, but in decades.
“Today, thousands of US service personnel, defence officials and their families are stationed in the United Kingdom, as British personnel serve with equal pride across 30 American states.
“We are building F-35s together. And we have agreed the most ambitious submarine programme in history, AUKUS.”
As a final sweetener, Charles added, “More broadly, we celebrate the $430 billion in annual trade that continues to grow, the $1.7 trillion in mutual investment that fuels that innovation,” before praying “with all my heart that our alliance will continue to defend our shared values, with our partners in Europe and the Commonwealth, and across the world, and that we ignore the clarion calls to become ever more inward-looking.”
He closed in similar fashion with, “God bless the United States and God bless the United Kingdom.”
It is a measure of the true political character of the official opposition to Trump in the US and Europe that the Democrats joined in the multiple standing ovations for this reactionary diatribe, and that it was hailed by the British and European media.
“God save the King! I never thought I would see His Majesty stick the boot so deftly into President Donald Trump’s derriere,” wrote Sarah Baxter in the Independent. She was particularly pleased that Charles had “skewered Trump and his America First philosophy”, with his “tart reminder that the UK and Nato came to America’s defence after 9/11” and “the shout-out to the ‘courageous people’ of Ukraine”.
The conflicts between Trump and the European powers, like those with the Democrats, are not about the waging of murderous wars to seize control of vital resources and markets, but over where in the world should be targeted first, based on which alliances and how the spoils are then to be divided.