Amid No Kings protests, Charles trumped the tyrant president
The last time Charles was here on an official visit, no one seemed to notice. I saw him up close in the fall of 1985, during a trip from his stop at J.C. Penney at a suburban mall to promote British clothing to a starry state dinner. I am impressed.
The Prince of Wales had a reputation at the time as a bit of a wimp; She was always caught in her powerful mother’s shadow and resentful that she was assigned to do the ribbon-cutting.
In a flamboyant decade full of flamboyant kings like New York developer Donald Trump, Charles seemed like a man from another time. He aspired to be taken seriously and to have an impact on global affairs. As the charming British actor Peter Ustinov, who attended the state dinner, told me: “He has a clear idea of what he would do if allowed. One regrets not living in 1400.”
Touring the sights of Washington, Prince Charles impressed sales clerks and senators alike with his genuine interest in culture and politics and his playful and self-deprecating small talk.
as i wrote New York Times at the time, “She went out of her way to circumvent protocol and was equally comfortable discussing the architecture of Baltimore with the actresses on the television show. DynastyThe operatic roles made famous by Beverly Sills and the poor state of international relations.
It didn’t matter. Nobody was paying attention. He was just the man who accompanied Princess Diana to Washington. Diana outshone her prince without saying much, even as she shyly tucked her chin in and looked up through those bright blue eyes. It was almost a total eclipse of his son. I don’t remember seeing a single photo of Charles at the state dinner. His words have become history.
All eyes were on Sloane Square Cinderella. The state dinner was a fairy-tale return of Diana, the creation of fairy godmother Nancy Reagan. The First Lady invited Clint Eastwood, Mikhail Baryshnikov and John Travolta to dance with the princess, who loves to dance. Mrs. Reagan directed the Marine Band to put aside society’s two-step notation and start getting up to speed on the music. Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
“He’s such a little man of action,” Travolta said of Diana, who wore a gorgeous midnight blue velvet gown and diamond tiara.
The total effect of the visit was: “Who is Charles?” After years of being in his mother’s shadow, being in his young wife’s shadow didn’t boost his ego. The following decades would not be kind to Charles. He was mired in scandal and pain.
He destroyed his marriage in spectacular fashion and went back to his ex-girlfriend Camilla. After pouring her courage out to the BBC, Diana died alongside her new boyfriend in a nightmarish car crash in Paris and was elevated to saint status in Britain. Netflix’s “The Crown” featured an unflattering depiction of Charles’ maneuvers to persuade his mother to abdicate the throne in order to foster generational change. The Queen decided not to step aside and Charles entered his 70s still walking around.
Harry and Meghan implemented “Megxit” and moved more than 5,000 miles away. Harry then aimed a trans-Atlantic missile at the family with “The Substitute,” a tell-all about royals that portrayed his father and brother as emotionally distant and insensitive. Harry cast his stepmother Camilla as a manipulative villain. After Charles gave Harry and Meghan an elaborate wedding with a black minister and gospel choir, Meghan Markle told Oprah that she faced racism within the royal family.
Charles and his bride Kate Middleton were receiving cancer treatment. Charles was later forced to strip his brother Andrew of his title when public outrage grew over his unsavory friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
But last week in Washington, Charles came to his senses. Forty years after Diana’s return to Cinderella, Charles became Cinderella.
In a country full of No King protests, this king was a tonic. She presented herself with grace, wit and intelligence; Everything that’s missing from Washington in the Trump era. It came at an opportune time to remind the autocrat in the White House why Britain’s rebellious colony was fleeing: to escape the tyranny of an oppressive king.
“Amid the flames of a bitter and bloody Revolutionary War, the triumph of George Washington, the father of this country, and his fellow founders was to establish a democracy founded on the rights of liberty and the rule of law,” Charles said at the state dinner.
In a pointed speech to Congress, he reminded lawmakers that our Constitution, based on Magna Carta, checks the power of a tyrant.
The King gave Donald a masterful education, and Donald received this education because he was always admired by the British royal family. The President was thrilled that a British newspaper had done a genealogy study that revealed he might be a distant cousin of Charles. (Then so did the Bushes.) Trump even lowered tariffs on Scotch whiskey to please the king.
Charles gently reminded the president, who criticized NATO for not helping to rescue him from the Iran quagmire, that America’s allies had stepped up after 9/11. Britain fought alongside us in Afghanistan for 20 years and tried to rebuild it with us. “Our people have fought together and fallen together to defend the values we hold dear,” Charles said.
The message to Trump was clear: After our involvement in America’s misguided invasion of Afghanistan and war in Iraq, do not scold us for not supporting your misadventure in Iran.
Charles, who gently mocked the regional Trump at the state dinner, stated that he was already the King of Canada and there was no need for another. He also quipped: “I know you have big plans for the moon now, Mr. President, but I’ve checked the newspapers and I’m afraid I suspect it’s already part of the Commonwealth!”
He quoted Shakespeare’s words Henry V To encourage the warlike president to seek peace: “My speech begs, that I may know… why gentle Peace should not bless us with its former qualities.”
It was wonderful to hear the King’s English, free from the vengefulness, profanity and vulgarity common in our leader’s language. The king was a salve to a strained partnership. Trump called Prime Minister Keir Starmer a “coward” and a “loser” for not helping Iran. Britain’s ambassador, Christian Turner, was not helped by his comment that the “special relationship” America currently has with Israel had been leaked.
Charles was in the shadow of Diana’s radiance during his last state visit. This time he spread his own enthusiasm; a show of class that shines next to the boorish Trump. In the end, Charles was left in no one’s shadow. At the age of 77, he did what he always wanted to do: make his mark on the world.
This article was first published on: New York Times.
