King Charles must cancel proposed U.S. visit

The British government should immediately cancel plans for the upcoming visit of King Charles to Washington to meet with U. S. President Donald Trump.

The dates for the visit have not yet been announced, but all indications are that it will take place — if it happens at all — sometime in April.  The reasons given for the proposed trip are twofold: to kick off celebrations for the 250^th anniversary of United States independence, and to revitalize a trade deal between the two countries.

But the plans for the visit are happening amid ongoing international tensions over Trump’s desire to “take over” Greenland. He’s unclear how that might happen — by purchase, by military force, or by coercion.

The Danes and Greenlanders have taken the route of diplomacy to try to settle the issue while remaining united in espousing Greenland’s position as an integral part of the Danish kingdom.

But Trump’s sycophants at the recent meeting between the three parties, Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have been ominously silent regarding the outcome. Speculation in Washington is that Trump believes they have mishandled the issue.

Now Trump has done an about-face on the British government’s decision to transfer the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, site of a joint U.K./U.S. military base, to Mauritius.

Although he previously supported the transfer, he now calls it “an act of great stupidity,” and has somehow managed to tie it to the Greenland issue, saying this is another reason “why Greenland has to be acquired.” There is no connection between the two.

What would definitely constitute an act of great stupidity would be for the U.K. to proceed with King Charles’s visit to the U.S.

Charles is the head of state for the United Kingdom. Whether he visits the United States or not is a decision to be taken by the British government, not by Buckingham Palace or even by the King himself.

By all reports, Charles got along well with the president during Trump’s visit to London in 2025. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is the impression that would be created by a reciprocal visit at this tense time.

The public would see this as British support, and Charles’s support, for a tyrant who is threatening a NATO ally and undermining the stability of NATO itself.

In the past few days, a prominent Conservative member of the British Parliament has referred to Trump as “a gangster pirate,” while a Liberal Democrat member, in calling the President an “extortionist,” said Britain must not “reward Trump’s behaviour with the pageantry he craves.”

And let’s not forget the man’s threats to Canada, our sovereignty, and our position as a NATO member. King Charles is also the King of Canada. Our governor general is merely his surrogate. It is unconscionable that he would lend the dignity of his person and the prestige of his role to boosting the stature of a man who threatens not only Britain’s stability but Canada’s as well.

Through his execrable behaviour, the man who would be king has lost his moral right to host the man who is King.

Kenn Harper was Denmark’s honorary consul in Nunavut from 2005 to 2017. He was knighted by the Kingdom of Denmark in 2014 by being inducted to the Royal Order of Dannebrog. He writes the regular Taissumani column for Nunatsiaq News.