King Charles and Queen Camilla have been keeping company with Donald and Melania Trump during their historic state visit, but relations between the Trumps and monarch have carried on behind the scenes for years in a way few might have anticipated. The US First Lady and her husband have been writing to King Charles for years.
Mrs Trump, writing in her 2024 memoir, Melania, recalled the Trumps’ first state visit to the UK in June 2019. During the trip, Mr Trump and his wife hosted the then Prince of Wales and Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, at the US ambassador’s residence. She described the “intimate” dinner as a “perfect” expression of the ties between the UK and US.
The First Lady wrote that the late Queen Elizabeth II and Royal Family treated the Trumps with “the utmost hospitality”.
According to The Independent, Mrs Trump wrote that at a “formal and elegant” state dinner, she was seated next to the then Prince Charles, adding: “it was an absolute pleasure to reconnect with him.”
In her memoir, Mrs Trump noted that she first met the King in 2005 and since the 2019 state visit the Trumps have kept in touch with Charles by letter.
Mrs Trump said: “As we bid farewell to Her Majesty, we extended a cordial invitation for her return visit to the United States. She expressed her gratitude with a warm smile.
“Sadly, Her Majesty wasn’t able to visit with us again before her death in 2022, but our friendship with the Royal Family continues, and we exchange letters with King Charles to this day.”
King Charles is believed to have written to Mr Trump after an assassination attempt while he was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 US Presidential Election.
The start of the King and Queen’s historic trip – Charles’ first to the US as King – was overshadowed by the attempted assassination of the president on Saturday night at a dinner in Washington.
Charles privately contacted the president and his wife to express his and the Queen’s sympathies with all those affected on the night, and their gratitude to the security services who prevented further injury.
The state visit is the most important foreign trip of the King’s reign so far as relations between the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Trump remain under strain.
Photos taken on Monday show Mrs Trump and the King smiling and laughing together as they appeared on the White House lawn after Charles and Camilla received a warm welcome from the President and First Lady.