According to government sources, there is a possibility of senior members of the Royal Family embarking on a tour of the United States next year. The goal of such a visit would be to enhance Britain’s relations with the incoming President, Donald Trump.
It is believed by Downing Street that a royal visit to America could serve to strengthen the ‘special relationship’ between the two countries, especially following Prince William’s meeting with the President last month.
Despite previous criticisms directed at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by Mr. Trump, he has expressed admiration for King Charles III and holds Queen Elizabeth II in high regard.
No offer has yet been made given talks are at an early stage, but a tour could happen in 2026 to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
After of Mr Trump’s second inauguration today, a senior UK government source told The Times: ‘Donald Trump has a clear affinity for the Royal Family. He had a great relationship with the late Queen, recently met Prince William and has spoken highly of King Charles. A royal tour to the US would help reinforce the ‘special relationship’.’
A second added: ‘Playing up to his pro-monarchist tendencies is one of a number of important ways we can exert our soft power. You saw that during his first administration and can expect to see it again.’
Events to mark the ‘Semiquincentennial’ in the US will begin on Memorial Day this May then culminate in celebrations on Independence Day on July 4, 2026.
Mr Trump has already spoken of his plans to invite world leaders to events – and it comes after Queen Elizabeth II visited the US in 1976 for the 200th anniversary.
It also comes ahead of the US hosting the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada, meaning William could attend events linked to his role as Football Association patron.
Meanwhile Mr Trump could become the first elected leader to receive two state visits by the UK, with discussions having also been held about this in future.
The precedent for second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit is normally tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama, but this could now change.
Mr Trump has met the King previously – including when he hosted a dinner for Charles and Camilla in June 2019 at the US ambassador’s residence during his last state visit when he was hosted by the late Queen.
Foreign monarchs, presidents or prime ministers are invited to visit the King on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, so any decision on another state visit ultimately lies with the Government.
The new president recently met William on December 7, 2024 at the ceremonial reopening of Notre Dame cathedral following the devastating fire in 2019.
Mr Trump later revealed William told him Charles ‘is fighting very hard’ as his cancer treatment continues – while the Princess of Wales is ‘doing well’.
He also told how they had a ‘great chat’ in Paris for ‘a little more than half an hour’ and described the bearded prince as looking ‘very handsome’.
They spoke at the British ambassador’s residence, and Mr Trump gestured to the prince and said: ‘Good man, this one.’
Kensington Palace said at the time that during their 40-minute meeting, the pair discussed a range of global issues but focused on the importance of the relationship between the UK and the US, with the president-elect sharing fond memories of the late Queen.
The prince last met the 78-year-old in 2019 when the then-president made a state visit to the UK.
Mr Trump did not mention any discussion about William’s estranged brother Harry, having previously warned he would get no special privileges in America.
Mr Trump has lambasted the Duke of Sussex since he left Britain in 2020, criticising him for the ‘unforgiveable betrayal’ of his grandmother Elizabeth II.
He also suggested last March that Harry – who lives in Montecito, California – could be deported from the US if his drug use was not declared on his visa application.
The Heritage Foundation think-tank has been trying to reopen its case to get Harry’s secret visa application made public after he admitted taking drugs in his memoir.
But a US judge ruled last September that it should remain private.
Back in September 2020, soon after Harry and his wife Meghan Markle had moved to the US, the couple urged American voters to ‘reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity’ in that year’s election which was eventually won by Joe Biden.
While the Sussexes did not endorse a candidate, the wording of their video message prompted accusations that they were referring to Mr Trump and had therefore breached UK protocol keeping members of the Royal Family political neutrality.
Mr Trump is well known for his love of the monarchy – previously boasting that he had ‘automatic chemistry’ with the late Queen, and has hailed Charles as a ‘really wonderful guy’.
The last outward state visit to the US by a British monarch was 18 years ago when Elizabeth II was hosted by George W Bush in 2007 – and Mr Trump has often spoken of his bond with her.
‘I really got to know her because I sat with her many times and we had automatic chemistry, you will understand that feeling,’ he said.
But author Craig Brown, in his biography A Voyage Around The Queen, later claimed that the monarch found Mr Trump ‘very rude’.
She is said to have ‘particularly disliked’ the way he ‘couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting’.
In 2018, Mr Trump joined the Queen for tea at Windsor Castle.
As they inspected a Guard of Honour, the president walked along before standing still in front of the Queen, meaning she had to navigate her way around him so they could walk side by side.
He later said of the sovereign in an interview: ‘That is a beautiful woman.’
At the state visit a year later, he was treated to a full programme of pomp and pageantry, with a ceremonial welcome and a glittering ballroom banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Charles inspected a Guard of Honour with Mr Trump on the lawns of the royal residence, dined with him at the banquet and had tea with him, Mrs Trump and the then-Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House.
Mr Trump, who is known for his extreme hand-holding, appeared to deliver a fist bump to Elizabeth II in the Palace gardens, but it was more likely an unusual clench of her hand.
He tweeted the London trip had been a success, adding: ‘The Queen and the entire Royal family have been fantastic.’
Mr Trump and the King, as the Prince of Wales, have met several times, although not since Charles acceded to the throne in 2022, with Mr Trump’s first term as American leader ending in 2021. But they appear to be on friendly terms.
Incoming-First Lady Melania Trump wrote in her recent memoir that she and her husband have an ongoing correspondence with the monarch.
‘Our friendship with the royal family continues and we exchange letters with King Charles to this day,’ she said.
Mr Trump has admitted, however, that the King is ‘a little bit more into environmental restriction than I am’.
In fact, while Charles has warned climate change is ‘the wolf at the door’, Mr Trump brands it a ‘Chinese hoax’ and ‘bull***t’.
But Mr Trump maintained he ‘totally listened’ to the then-prince when he was pressed on climate change by Charles during his 2019 visit.
The King wrote privately to Mr Trump after he survived an assassination attempt, condemning the violence and wishing him a quick recovery.
And Mr Trump spoke of how he hoped the King was ‘going to be OK’ following his cancer diagnosis this year.
He has, however, been publicly critical of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who live in the US with their children.
Mr Trump warned Harry he could face consequences if he lied about taking drugs on his US visa application.
This came after Harry’s references to taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms in his memoir Spare, which prompted the Heritage Foundation to question why he was allowed into America in 2020.
Mr Trump told Nigel Farage on GB News in March: ‘We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.’
Mr Farage asked: ‘Appropriate action? Which might mean … not staying in America?’
Mr Trump replied: ‘Oh I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.’
The Heritage Foundation brought a lawsuit against the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) over access to Harry’s immigration records after a Freedom of Information Act request was rejected.
But in September a US judge ruled Harry’s visa application should remain private despite him admitting taking drugs in his autobiography.
Mr Trump also lambasted Harry and Meghan, accusing them of treating the late Queen ‘very disrespectfully’.
‘She was unbelievable. And I thought she was treated very disrespectfully by them,’ he said.
‘She, I would say, although she wouldn’t show it because she was strong and smart, but I would imagine they broke her heart.’
According to Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, Harry once urged Mr Markle to give Mr Trump a chance.
Mr Markle shared details of their private conversation in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
He said: ‘Our conversation was, I was complaining about not liking Donald Trump, he said: ‘Give Donald Trump a chance’. I sort of disagreed with that.’
Meghan was a vocal critic of former reality star Mr Trump, backing his rival, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and suggesting then that she would leave the US if he won.
She previously labelled him ‘divisive’ and a ‘misogynist’.
Mr Trump meanwhile once said he would have slept with Diana, Princess of Wales, without hesitation.
In a Howard Stern radio interview recorded just months after the princess died, he also branded her ‘beautiful’ but ‘crazy’.
Mr Trump used to bombard Diana – the mother of Harry and the now-Prince of Wales William – at Kensington Palace with massive bouquets, according to broadcaster Selina Scott, who said he saw the princess as ‘the ultimate trophy wife’.
She added that Mr Trump gave Diana the creeps: ‘It had begun to feel as if Trump was stalking her.’
Mr Trump also made remarks about the now-Princess of Wales after Kate was photographed sunbathing topless by the paparazzi in France.
‘Kate Middleton is great – but she shouldn’t be sunbathing in the nude – only herself to blame,’ he wrote on social media.
MailOnline has contacted Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for comment on the possibility of a royal visit to the US.
