A state dinner at the White House had King Charles give a colonial-era clapback to US President Donald Trump. The roast came after Trump recycled a familiar line about America’s role in preserving European sovereignty.
King Charles dropped a colonial joke after Donald Trump’s comment
During the toast, Donald Trump repeated a claim he made at the Davos summit in January, that without United States intervention in World War 2, European countries “would be speaking German and a little Japanese.” King Charles then roasted Trump with history.
“You recently commented, Mr. President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German,” Charles said. “Dare I say that, if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French,” he added. The remark was a reference to the long-running struggle between Britain and France for dominance across North America before American independence was secured nearly 250 years ago. Had the French prevailed, large portions of what became the United States might have fallen under French linguistic and cultural influence.
The monarch did not stop at one historical reference. Addressing Donald Trump’s current renovation of the White House, King Charles made a comparison. “I am sorry to say that we British, of course, made our own attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814,” he said, alluding to the War of 1812 when British forces set fire to the presidential residence.
Furthermore, King Charles also described the dinner as “a very considerable improvement on the Boston Tea Party,” invoking the 1773 protest in which American colonists destroyed British tea shipments in defiance of Crown taxation. On the other hand, Trump aimed most of his humor elsewhere. He congratulated Charles on the speech given to Congress earlier in the day. “He got the Democrats to stand—I’ve never been able to do that,” Trump joked.
The king’s visit was part of a broader British effort to shore up relations following Trump’s criticism of Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his position on Iran (via South China Morning Post).
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu for Mandatory.
