President Trump humorously quipped that his marriage to Melania was unlikely to match the longevity of his parents’ union, which lasted 63 years, in his welcome address to the British royals.
He later praised the late Queen Elizabeth II, Charles’s mother, as an ‘incredible woman’ who is ‘greatly missed on both sides of that mighty Atlantic.’
The President and First Lady have rolled out the red carpet for King Charles and Queen Camilla, welcoming them on their four-day state visit with pomp and pageantry.
A traditional military ceremony by the US Army Herald Trumpets was followed by national anthems of both countries, played by the US Marine Band, and a Presidential Salute Battery rendering a 21-gun salute, as part of their official arrival on Tuesday.
Charles and Queen Camilla have a jam-packed schedule for their second day in Washington, DC, which includes a bilateral meeting with Donald Trump, his address to Congress and a state dinner.
In a historic address to Congress at 3pm, the King is expected to emphasize the two countries’ long history and shared democratic values in an effort to strengthen the special UK-US relationship, which has been under serious strain in recent months.
The visit is the most important foreign trip of Charles’s reign so far, but it now has the added element of heightened security concerns after an attempted assassination of the President on Saturday at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
After the royal couple wraps up in DC, they will head to New York to honor 9/11 victims and then to Virginia to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence.
