US President Donald Trump praised the “priceless and eternal” US-UK alliance and paid tribute to the royal family during a state banquet on Wednesday evening, calling the visit “one of the highest honours” of his life as he embraced a day full of British royal pageantry.
Trump said the word “special” hardly does justice to the relationship between the transatlantic allies.
He described them as two verses of the same poem, beautiful on their own but really meant to be played together. He also said they have done more good for humanity than any two countries in all of history.”
“The bond of kinship and identity between America and the United Kingdom is priceless and eternal,” Trump said.
“We had a very sick country one year ago, and today I believe we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,” the Republican president said.
Earlier, the British monarch, King Charles III, celebrated the longstanding history between the US and Britain as he delivered his speech at the gala banquet honouring Trump.
The king marvelled at the shared history of the two nations and their strong relationship, which 250 years ago, at the time of America’s founding, would have been unimaginable to George Washington and King George.
“We celebrate a relationship between two countries that surely old George could not possibly have imagined,” he said.
King Charles III also hailed the US and UK’s defence and security alliance, highlighting the threat posed by Russian aggression in Ukraine
“In two World Wars, we fought together to defeat the forces of tyranny,” Charles said at Windsor Castle, west of London. “Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine.”
The speech, on the first day of Trump’s state visit to the UK, comes amid concern that Trump isn’t doing enough to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine.
But Charles lauded Trump’s work as a peacemaker.
“Our countries are working together in support of crucial diplomatic efforts, not least of which, Mr. President, is your own personal commitment to finding solutions to some of the world’s most intractable conflicts in order to secure peace.”
Tech giants at State Banquet
Among those invited to the banquet hosted by King Charles III were technology CEOs Tim Cook of Apple, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind and Sam Altman of OpenAI. Pascal Soriot, who heads drugmaker Astrazeneca, the most valuable company on the London Stock Exchange, was also in attendance.
In a nod to Trump’s love of golf, English golfer Nick Faldo, winner of six major championships, including three Masters’ titles, was also present.
Trump sat next to King Charles at the centre of the 50-meter-long table in St. George’s Hall, where the ceiling was adorned with the coat of arms of every Knight of the Garter since the order was founded in 1348.
Catherine, the Princess of Wales, was seated to the president’s right.
Trump tried to impress his hosts with jokes, saying he was impressed at King Charles’s ability to know the names of, in his estimation, about 150 people they shook hands with.
“And some of them had bad names like X,Y, Z, dash two-three,” Trump quipped. “And he knew every one of them. Or at least I think I did, because nobody was complaining.”
He also praised his son, Prince William, as “remarkable” and “amazing” and his wife, Princess Kate, as “so radiant and so healthy, so beautiful.”
The princess said earlier this year that her cancer is in remission.
He joked in his remarks before at the start of the lavish state dinner that he hopes no other American president is so honoured again.
“This is truly one of the highest honours of my life,” Trump said, reading from prepared remarks.