AIBU to be horrified by Charles and Camilla visiting the US?

And a country that can’t prevent the president going totally batshit and invading places to distract from potential bad publicity is definitely messed up

Unfortunately he's more than a pimple. Given the strength and depth of his support, he has to be viewed as a big pustulating boil. Unfortunately getting rid of him won't get rid of the underlying infection of MAGA nutcases, but the more we can do to neutralise them, the better.

I assume that people with much closer knowledge of all concerned think it is at least worth a try sending the King over because Trump may listen to him where he doesn't listen to anyone else. If you watch The Crown, you get the occasional interesting glimpse of how Queen Elizabeth was effectively used from time to time for diplomatic ends, and indeed sometimes she suggested it herself. I'm sure that still goes on.

And Trump obviously thinks that Charles will come back and tell Starmer to do x, y and z. He is too thick to understand the very limited power of the King.

He is visiting on behalf of the UK government - and given how Trump is obsessed with slagging off said country (not just the government) the visit should not go ahead

Trump is just a temporary pimple on the face of the US and will soon be gone. The state visit is about much longer term relations between two nations.

I agree that the visit should go ahead as between two nations - the UK needs to find a way of keeping good relations with the US - good luck to them with that ...

But I do not think that Trump is just a blip - the repercussions of what he has done and is doing are not going to go away any time soon; and the fact that he is able to get away with all this indicates that there are many many people in the US who back him - they are not going away any time soon either.

This is big .........

Why? If he does, he knows there is a huge risk that any conversation will be gleefully repeated to media (with the usually whiny slant).

Harry has spent his time since leaving the family whinging and telling ‘his truth’ against his family. He can’t be trusted.

Yes absoltuy they should go and I hope he makes time to see his son and grandchildren.

I think Charles is possibly the only person on the planet that Trump admires and might take notice of. Maybe Charles could hypnotise him into behaving like a vaguely normal president for the next couple of years 🙏🙏

I'm all in favour of diplomacy and the soft power that the royals have in relation to Trump but if the US goes ahead with blitzing Iran and targeting civilian infrastructure, I really can't see how the visit can take place in the midst of that

Trump wouldn't have the decorum not to somehow involve the king in proclaiming victory

And the optics, if the war is still on, of the king and queen at a formal glitzy banquet wouldn't go down well here, IMO

There is a change.org petition getting going to try and stop this. Please sign! https://c.org/KW6YDbtFYR

I agree. I don’t want any of them coming here. Our friends in the UK don’t like the Royals, they’re embarrassed of them.

The Afro-Americans might disagree seeing as they were shackled in slavery for years after the British abolished it in their empire.

Just realised you are probably a Trump bot. Never mind.

The Trump is Hitler idea is grotesquely overblown and minimises some of the worst crimes of the modern era.

But let’s run with it for now.

What was shameful about the Windsors visit was the very personal admiration for Hitler and the Nazi reich that they showed. No one things Charles is a fan of Trump and the US ‘reich’ that he’s going to celebrate is the 250 year old republic.

If you mean, should govts engage with leaders they dislike, again, let’s run with your Hitler analogy. Was it immoral for Chamberlain to have sought peace in 1938? (Open question, I think it can be argued both ways).

I agree with you that criticisms of the US as some sort of uniquely bad superpower lack historical context. It’s the best superpower the world has ever seen, in terms of how it treats its citizens and others. Hopefully that’s because there’s a durable historical trend not becuase we’re in an aberration.

But I also think criticism of the British legacy over 300 yrs suffers the same kind of myopia. There is plenty of harm in that record but also the (largely British) birth of industrialisation, and modern medicine, communications and institutions. To say that on balance Britain’s is a harmful legacy fails to grasp just how tough, poor and brutal pre-modern life was almost everywhere.

Do you think we should have cosied up to Hitler, too?

I could have believed that it was a one-off when he first got elected. Now that it's happened twice it's clear that the US is never more than four years from electing a lunatic.

The tour was by invitation of the president when he visited here, the date was set months ago before this current madness. I’m pretty sure they would rather not go but I suspect the soft diplomacy the king has in his arsenal could be a last ditch attempt to persuade Trump to stop this, no one else has but his is in awe to our monarchy

Definitely this, I'm sure they don't want to go but need to. Not going would cause even bigger problems.

And you understand the realpolitik of this visit more than ‘horrified’ idiots who don’t have the slightest idea about how power and diplomacy work.

In a very unstable world, this visit is a win for Britain.

Personally, I’d make a brief appearance at the party anyway, just so the boyfriend couldn’t spin my non-appearance as, “see, they don’t care about you - it’s us against the world. I’m the only one who’s really there for you.”

But whether the analogy works for you or not, it’s diplomatically stupid to piss off the population of a country that, historically, really likes yours.

Yes, it’s a ridiculous analogy because in this scenario you’d be being publicly hosted by said rapist, shaking hands with him, sitting next to him in photographs while knowing he’s also violently attacking other people while impacting their human rights, cost of living and risking nuclear war. Not just the average pedophile going out with your sister then…

Also, the people that think that Trump’s recent impacts can just be easily reversed should he / his cronies be voted out are living in cloud cuckoo land. Not to mention his attacks on an impartial and secure voting system…

Also - tell the loved ones of people that have died due to the regime that…

If her boyfriend was a rapist and paedophile, I'd be hoping some day she would understand my reasons.

They do seem to have just (ironically) shot themselves in the foot there, don’t they? 😆

Which bit do you disagree with? I have to say, if I wanted to call somebody ridiculous for making a post like this, I’d be very specific about which bit, just in case anybody thought I was supporting a convicted felon and sexual abuser.

The fact that major US firms move their operations out of the US should worry all Americans. Trump has been in power long enough now to have managed to avoid for that to happen if they had confidence in him and his economy.