When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid his first visit to President Trump in the Oval Office this year, he came bearing a very special gift.
"I was just notified by letter from King Charles that he's extended, through the prime minister, a historic second state visit to the United Kingdom. And that's a great honor because it's never happened before," Trump said at the time, brandishing the invitation.
Trump has long talked about how he admires the royal family, and his state visit with Queen Elizabeth II was a highlight of his first term. For the British government, extending an unprecedented second such honor also opens the door to influencing Trump on issues like support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
"It seems almost crude, but it's almost exactly that — the U.K. knows that its leverage in its soft power when it comes to Trump comes through the royal family — he has a long affiliation and a kind of affinity to the royal family," said Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group, a London-based think-tank.
Even though Trump is not popular in the U.K. — and his upcoming visit is expected to draw big protests, as his 2019 state visit did — leveraging his interest in the monarchy for the U.K.'s benefit is viewed as a sensible diplomatic move, Aspinall said.
Trump's interest in the royals comes from his mother
Trump's long fascination with the royal family has to do in part with his mother. In many interviews over the years, he has talked about her fascination with Queen Elizabeth.
"She was a big fan of the queen, I have to tell you," Trump told podcaster Miranda Devine in July. "And anytime the queen was on television, my mother liked watching. She said, 'Oh, the queen's on.'"
Trump said he felt a sense of awe when meeting the queen in his first term. "I was walking up and I was thinking, 'Can you imagine my mother seeing the scene?'" Trump said in an interview with journalist Piers Morgan in 2018.
He was downright reverential in talking about the queen, adding: "She is so sharp, so wise, so beautiful."
The president and first lady Melania Trump will meet with the King and other members of the royal family on Wednesday in a visit scheduled to include a carriage procession, military bands, and a state banquet at Windsor Castle.
On Thursday, he will meet with Starmer at his countryside estate called Chequers where they will discuss bilateral issues and hold a press conference.
The U.K. state visit is a rite of passage for U.S. presidents
Trump's not unusual in being impressed by the royals, said Nicole Hemmer, a professor of history at Vanderbilt University.
"These state visits have been, I think, a highlight for many presidents, precisely because of the special relationship between the United States and the U.K.," she said, "particularly the visits with the royal family – being part of that pomp and circumstance that come along with being around royalty."
Trump's attention on the royals has gone beyond glitz, though. He was enamored with Princess Diana – in his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback, Trump wrote: "I only have one regret in the women department – that I never had the opportunity to court Lady Diana Spencer."
And he also has weighed in on recent royal family drama, saying that he thought Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, were disrespectful to the late queen.
Hemmer said she sees a connection between Trump's interest in the royals and his view of the presidency.
"Trump himself has praised monarchical government and in fact, shared pictures online of himself imagined as a king, which is something that previous presidents have been very careful not to do precisely because the U.S. was born in revolution against monarchy," she said.
In 2023, ahead of King Charles' coronation, Trump expanded on his feelings about the British monarchy to Nigel Farage, a prominent right-wing British parliamentarian, on his news show.
"I think it's a very important event, I think it's a great thing," he said of the coronation. "A lot of people talk about the monarchy, should you have it or should you not. I think it's a fantastic thing. It holds your country together, largely."
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