The King would have prepared Trump for criticisms in speech, says Tom Bower

Royal expert Tom Bower has praised the King’s speech to Congress and said he would have “sucked up” to President Trump in private.

Speaking on GB News Tom Bower said: “I think it was a mixture. The first two thirds [of the speech] was a genuinely wonderful appraisal of the relationship, of history, drawing on all of his forebears and forefathers and everything. And I thought it really touched a really emotional moment, and that was terrific.

“His voice changed as well. It then changed gear. It was clearly going uphill at that stage in a bad second gear. So of course, that was inserted by Whitehall. But until then, he had the audience gripped.

“I mean, you’re talking to very hardened politicians, a lot of cynics. And that they should get up all the time and applaud was because he was delivering it very well. A man of huge experience, an extraordinary background, and I thought it did prove the value of the monarchy.

“No president of Britain could have delivered that sort of gripping moment of tension and humour and good will. So I think on the whole he did pretty well.

“I think Charles knew exactly what the reaction would be, and I think he probably prepared Trump with their private conversations by telling him, you know, some of the things I’m going to say, you won’t particularly like, especially on Ukraine and the shared values there.

“But by now, Charles has had 60 years’ experience. I mean, he has more political experience than most of those people he was addressing and I think he prepared the ground for Trump not to be angry.

“I think he did the sucking up [to Trump] in private. But I think that the historic stuff, the drawing of the relationship over the centuries, went down amazingly well. And I don’t think that for the American audience, and this is really primarily for an American audience, they would understand the Starmer politics. They wouldn’t understand what he was really up against…

“Let’s face it, he’s actually undermining the nation and that is a deeply unpatriotic Prime Minister we’ve got.

“But I think, given all the problems, the King carried it off very, very well, in my view.”