King Charles was reportedly nervous about hosting President Donald Trump for a state visit to the UK, according to a report from The i Paper on Thursday.
Leaked emails and messages have revealed that the King was concerned for one main reason: the president's contentious meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in February 2025, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance ridiculed the Ukrainian leader for not showing enough gratitude for support from America.
"The monarch’s private reservations over the visit left officials scrambling, fearful that a royal snub of President Trump could detonate into a full-blown diplomatic crisis," according to The i Paper.
"Multiple senior Whitehall sources have told this newspaper that the King was reticent about hosting Trump at this time because of his treatment of Zelensky," The i Paper reported.
A source told the outlet that the King was "jittery" about Trump's appearance. Another source said he "did not want to do it."
"A flurry of emails and texts exchanged between Peter Mandelson, then US ambassador, and officials in March 2025 reveal a behind-the-scenes diplomatic scramble to alleviate Charles’s concerns over the visit," according to The i Paper. "In one message, the peer thanks the most senior civil servant in Foreign Office for his 'cool handling of the last 48 hours on the SV [State Visit],' and in another exchange five days later Mandelson discusses how he is awaiting an update following the weekly audience between the King and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer."
The incident has exposed the tough diplomatic situation over Ukraine and the fears that the United States could halt its support of Ukraine amid the ongoing war. The King's private worries over the visit were included in the Mandelson files, which contained redacted documents, hundreds of private WhatsApp messages and emails exchanged between current and former UK Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants and advisers, The i Paper reported.
"The messages which have been published indicate that officials and diplomats were working intensively behind the scenes to allay the King’s concerns, and suggest that Starmer was due to discuss them with Charles at their weekly audience," according to The i Paper. "The key email and text exchanges took place between March 14 and 19, 2025 – a period of intense diplomacy over the war in Ukraine and just weeks after Trump had an explosive row with the Ukrainian President on 28 February."