King Charles III used his historic address to the U.S. Congress to offer a subtle but stinging rebuke of President Donald Trump’s often-monarchical ambitions — hailing the “separation of powers” that ensured the new union would not wind up with another king lording over the unified colonies all those centuries ago.
Speaking before a rare joint meeting of Congress on the second day of his and Queen Camilla’s state visit to Washington, the king had both Democrats and Republicans leaping to their feet, clapping and loudly cheering in response to his thinly disguised critique of the current president veiled in a historical description of the American constitutional system, lauding the foundation of the republic as part of a “great inheritance” passed down from the United Kingdom to the United States.
