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Repairing the Special Relationship
When soft power works as lobbying
The red-carpet treatment rolled out for the King and Queen in Washington – and the success of the royal visit in terms of repairing a damaged Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ – is a reminder to never underestimate British soft power. The King knows how to use a state dinner for under-the-radar diplomatic lobbying to promote not just British interests but also his own, such as Ukraine.
At a state visit designed to celebrate the 250th year of American independence from British rule – when the 13 colonies broke away from King George III, King Charles’s five-times great-grandfather – what we have actually seen in Washington is something akin to a return to 19th-century court diplomacy when the fate of kingdoms and wars was decided over personal meetings, masterclasses in flattery and state banquets. President Trump operates with his own regal court – son-in-law Jared Kushner is a Dauphin-style international ambassador – that has a soft spot for British royalty.
And don’t forget how wearing historic jewels can also help. To go with her fuchsia pink Fiona Clare evening gown, Queen Camilla wore a huge amethyst and diamond necklace that once belonged to Queen Victoria, who later bequeathed them to the royal collection. It’s part of a set – known as the Kent Amethyst Demi-Parure – that also includes a brooch that Queen Elizabeth II wore to visit President Bush at the White House in 1991. Continuity is all.
In her op-ed piece on why King Charles is Britain’s best diplomatic asset, Lucy Carrier-Pilkington sets out why Keir Starmer should be grateful for the work – from strained French jokes to a framed replica of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk which was gifted to the White House by Queen Victoria – that the King and Queen have done to salvage US-UK relations. King Charles’s address to Congress was designed to steady a strained special relationship. Twelve standing ovations later, the Palace had given Downing Street something politics could not: a rare bipartisan moment in Washington and a reminder that royal lobbying still has diplomatic bite.
As Evie Aspinall, Director of the British Foreign Policy Group, told The Mace: “The Royal Family serves as a huge soft power asset for the UK. The pomp, pageantry and tradition of the Royal Family are widely admired in the United States and can therefore create valuable diplomatic opportunities for the UK.
“King Charles’s visit to the United States was a powerful reminder of that, bringing celebration and excitement to an otherwise difficult special relationship. The Royal Family is able to position itself above the fray of day-to-day politics, acting as a useful diplomatic tool, particularly when relationships between the President and Prime Minister are difficult.”
Deal-maker diplomacy
It’s worth recalling that Trump’s surprise Houdini act last September – when he imposed oil sanctions on Russia to help Ukraine – was because he sat next to the King at a state dinner at Windsor Castle when Britain hosted the US president.
It’s no coincidence that Trump’s volte-face came immediately after King Charles and Prince William unleashed all Windsor Castle’s pomp and ceremony to flatter the Anglophile president. In his dinner speech, the King singled out Ukraine. On Ukrainian Independence Day, the King then posted on X, expressing his “greatest and deepest admiration for the unbreakable courage and spirit of the Ukrainian people” and calling for a “just and lasting peace”.
President Zelenskyy later admitted that the King’s soft-power influence on Trump at the dinner was a decisive factor in his change of stance towards Ukraine. This shows how relying on old-style diplomatic channels to resolve seemingly intractable geopolitical conflicts –including the Iran War – is not always the best way to do things.
Rather, we’re seeing a return to a time when kings and presidents try to fix the world over dinner or lunch. Trump is taking a more direct and entrepreneurial “deal-maker” approach to diplomacy. Royal dinners and private-jet diplomacy – as favoured by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy – appear more effective than old-school State Department diplomacy. No wonder Trump wants to build a ballroom and return the White House to the gilded age.
Room service / House moves
That King Charles and Queen Camilla stayed at the presidential guest house, Blair House, opposite the White House, rather than the British embassy in Washington, was clearly a deliberate diplomatic decision to avoid any awkward association with Lord Mandelson, the sacked US ambassador who used to live there. Mandy’s toxic relations with Jeffrey Epstein not only caused the sinking of Global Counsel, the corporate advisory and lobby firm that the Labour peer and architect of New Labour founded, but continue to haunt Keir Starmer, who this week only narrowly avoided a sleaze enquiry that could have brought him down.
Built in 1824. Blair House is a 120-room complex, comprised of four connecting homes, that has been transformed into the royals’ “home away from home” according to the New York Post. “We usually get a preference sheet from their embassy, identifying food, beverage, floral and other preferences and see to it that those preferences are taken care of. No detail is too small!” an official told the tabloid. “And while those dignitaries are in residence, Blair House becomes temporarily their nation’s property. We place their flag on the outside, indicating as much.”
Grapes of wrath / Whine and dine
Historically, the choice of food and wine
at the state banquet can also send deeply coded diplomatic messages. I was intrigued by the emphasis on French food and average wines rather than any typically British cuisine, although the White House honey was a nice touch.
The White House dinner was held in the East Room, where the table decor was “inspired by the beauty of English gardens”, a spokesman said. This seems like a missed opportunity to me because the White House could have forged closer ‘special relations’ by serving British Silicon Valley tech tycoon turned winemaker Sir Peter Michael’s Californian wines.
For many years, especially under Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama, it was customary for British-owned Californian wines to be served at embassy and state dinners in a spirit of fraternity. Peter Michael Chardonnay was first served at a White House dinner in 1991 to honour Nelson Mandela. The wines were also served at a 1997 dinner for Queen Elizabeth II, so serving it again would have been another nice nod to royal continuity at the White House.
Paradise Lost
Napa wines have come a long way since Paul Mason’s “Californian Carafe” of the 1970s (the 1979 TV commercial had a voice-over by Orson Wells). Founded in 1982, the Peter Michael Winery is a premier California producer focused on estate-grown, mountain-vineyard wines including grapes grown in the famous Au Paradis vineyard. It’s located on the volcanic slopes of Mount St Helena in Sonoma County’s Knights Valley and specialises in Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Bordeaux-style blends.
The wines – which can cost up to $200 a bottle according to vintage - were so often served at White House receptions and the British embassy in DC that it could be hard to buy cases in the UK because much of its limited supply was snapped up for the White House and British embassy cellar. Even if Trump is a Diet Coke-drinking teetotaller, it would have been a “classy” touch to serve British-made Napa vino at the state dinner. Or then perhaps Peter Mandelson – fond of a glass of Californian red – drank it all during his brief stint of residency as ambassador at 3100 Massachusetts Ave in Washington.
Instead, the wines served were from American producers and ranged from a $28 bottle of Riesling to a $65 Chardonnay. Pretty ordinary stuff. No mention of any British connections. But at least the wine ‘naming’ black-out seems to have been lifted.
Back in 2012, it was announced that the White House would no longer publish a list of the wines served at state occasions. The reason, according to Wine Spectator, was that some members of the public didn’t like the fact that “fancy, expensive wines – including Opus One, Peter Michael and Quilceda Creek – were being uncorked at the White House” at a time of economic restraint. As wine critic James Laube commented: “Those kinds of wines aren't poured at the White House every day, and to chastise the government for showing off the best wines America has to offer – world-class wines – is nonsense.”
Laube went on to point out that winemakers have helped heal diplomatic rifts in the past, citing the example of when, in 1972, bottles of 1969 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs were served as a “toast to peace” in Beijing, with glass chinking between President Richard Nixon and Premier Zhou Enlai.
Nixon, unlike Trump, was regarded as a wine connoisseur. It is said he had waiters serve him first-growth wines at state banquets with the chateaux labels hidden by a napkin while his White House “guests” had to put up with inferior wines.
The White House dinner on Tuesday was intended to “honour the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom”, but a diplomatic trick was surely missed by serving supermarket Riesling and Chardonnay.
Don’t mention the war
At the dinner, King Charles did not directly mention the crisis in Iran, although Donald Trump said the King “agrees with me even more than I do” that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. Rather than drag the Iran War into his speech to Congress – Trump has already lashed out at Starmer for being “no Churchill” – the King instead sought to repair the Anglo-American special relationship by saying that geopolitical ties were “more important” than ever. And he again brought up Ukraine, saying that an “unyielding resolve” was required to support the nation, and cautioned against US isolationism.
Brexit revisited?
What is really underlying the royals’ historic visit to America is not just Britain’s relationship in the Anglosphere, but rather the UK’s role in the world today. At a time when Trump’s commitment to the NATO alliance is fragile, should Britain remain a Blair-like poodle to the US, or should the UK be seeking to strengthen ties with Europe, including revisiting Brexit?
Judging by some recent slap-down remarks, it seems Sir Keir has had enough of sucking up to Trump, saying he’s “not going to yield” to American pressure. We shall see how long such fighting rhetoric lasts. With his premiership on the line come the 7 May elections, it will be interesting to see if the King Charles charm offensive in DC has helped t reduce the chances of the UK economy being subjected to more Trumpian tariffs in retaliation for not assisting – or being slow to offer help – with warships in the Iran War. Trump is not a man to easily forget or forgive.
Anyone for lunch?
Alas, we can’t promise to serve Sir Peter Michael’s Californian wines on Tuesday 26 May, when we are launching our new series of cross-party “Meet the Public Affairs Team” lunches and breakfasts. The lunch is part of a series of events with the public affairs teams of major companies and political parties. We kick off with a business leaders’ lunch at an SW1 private members’ club to meet Reform UK’s public affairs team.
This special Business Leaders’ Engagement Lunch on 26th May will be an opportunity to meet Matthew MacKinnon, director of external affairs at Reform UK, and other senior members of the public affairs team.
The three-course lunch is a chance for public affairs leaders, policy makers and think-tank heads to hear about Reform’s plan to engage with British business and find out more about Reform’s pre-conference Business Day and Business Dinner at the Birmingham NEC on 3 September. The lunch will be Chatham House Rule and will include presentations from key members of the Reform team.
Linking Up
Another event for your diary is The Mace VIP lunch on Wednesday 10 June at the UnHerd Club in Westminster with special guest speakers Jann Schwarz, Senior Director of Thought Leadership and Strategy at LinkedIn, and his UK-based colleague Mimi Turner, Head of Marketplace Innovation. Jann attended Harvard Business School and is flying in from New York for our event at which he will speak on “The corporate value of corporate reputation in an AI age”, as well as telling the story of how LinkedIn has transformed the world of corporate communication and networking.
Book now. Invitations for the three-course lunch, including wine, are extended to all Mace subscribers and corporate members. At £125 per head, including lashings of Provence rose, seats are flying. We are also offering an opportunity for a corporate sponsor to headline-sponsor the VIP lunch and invite a table of six guests.
Please email wendy.coumantaros@macemagazine.com for more information about both events and invitations.
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