King Charles addresses Congress on 250th anniversary

King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom arrived in Washington on Monday for a four-day state visit intended to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence from Britain, the most significant bilateral event since Queen Elizabeth II addressed the U.S. Congress in 1991. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed the royal couple with a formal ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, featuring a 21-gun salute and a review of 300 U.S. Army soldiers, an unprecedented honor for a state visit. King Charles III later delivered a 20-minute address before a joint session of Congress, underscoring that "again and again our two countries have found ways to unite" despite their differences. The monarchy has carefully orchestrated the visit to avoid diplomatic friction, scheduling all substantive bilateral meetings between Trump and Charles III behind closed doors. The visit unfolds amid significant strains on the traditional trans-Atlantic alliance. Trump has imposed tariffs on the United Kingdom, threatened additional levies, and criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer as "not Winston Churchill" for refusing to join the U.S.-led offensive against Iran or reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier this month, Trump also suggested making Canada the 51st U.S. state, even though King Charles III remains Canada's head of state. The president has furthermore promoted artificially generated images of himself as royalty on social media, and claimed distant genealogical ties to the British monarchy through his mother's Scottish ancestry. Security for the event was intensified following a shooting incident at a Washington hotel on Saturday that represented the third assassination attempt against Trump in two years. Despite these tensions, Trump declared during his welcome speech that "Americans have had no closer friends than the British," framing the occasion around the anniversary of independence and the "special relationship" between the nations. The royal couple is scheduled to continue their visit later in the week with stops in New York City and Virginia, while the Starmer government has moved closer to the European Union in response to Washington's confrontational posture toward its allies.