The king’s speech
I don’t usually pay much attention to speeches to Congress from foreign leaders. But King Charles III’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday — and the enthusiastic reaction to it from Republican lawmakers and President Trump — sets it apart.
The Canadians, who Trump wants to snatch from Charles’ Commonwealth of Nations to become the residents of our 51st state, seem to me to describe the moment best.
Charles “is very astute and he knows how to use his platform to push for things he thinks he can get away with,” says John Fraser, founding president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown, in Canada.
And in the king’s address on Tuesday, he used his platform “to maximum effect,” Fraser says.
“Charles used that grand Washington stage to gently correct the record on NATO’s past support for the U.S., stand up for the Royal Navy after Trump’s insults about that service, call for greater protection for nature amid American indifference on climate change and praise checks and balances on executive power at a time when the American president is thumbing his nose at Congress and the courts,” says the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
And “he did it elegantly,” says Frasier.
Charles has more leeway than other world leaders to chide the president when he thinks he’s stepped wrong, Ed Wang, a royal commentator, tells the CBC.
“I think he’s willing to get right up to the line to convey a very subtle message from a position of authority, a position of power, emphasizing what the King believes is the right thing to do,” Wang says. “Other leaders would be afraid of antagonizing Trump.”
But Charles surely knows that Trump is in awe of actual monarchs.
Later, while greeting Charles during his arrival at the state dinner in his honor, Trump called the king’s speech “great.”
“I was very jealous,” Trump said.
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