Washington: The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom may have been the focal point of the state dinner at the White House on Tuesday night (US time), but Australia had the most memorable moment.
King Charles, who had charmed his way through the US Congress hours earlier, made similarly light work of his candlelit East Room audience, which lapped up his jokes and applauded his niceties.
But when it came time to hand President Donald Trump a personal gift, it was to Australia and the AUKUS pact to which the King turned.
He gave Trump the original bell from the HMS Trump, a British-made, World War II-era submarine launched in August 1944, which spent most of its life attached to the fourth submarine squadron in Australia, and played a critical role during the war in the Pacific.
“May it stand as a testimony to our nations’ shared history and shining future,” Charles said. “And should you ever need to get hold of us – just give us a ring.”
Not only that, but the King explicitly linked his gift to the Australian alliance, describing HMS Trump as an “AUKUS predecessor”.
And he elevated AUKUS to the level of NATO, saying: “Today, our partnerships in NATO and AUKUS deepen our technological and military co-operation and ensure that together we can meet the challenges of an increasingly complex and contested world.”
Trump adores such gifts and gestures, and the moment received one of the greatest seals of approval possible in the Trump administration – being featured on the White House’s Rapid Response account on X.
For a state dinner, this was an intimate affair, held exclusively within the East Room for about 100 guests. Among them was Australian packaging billionaire Anthony Pratt, seated at the far end of one of two room-length tables – conveniently next to the press riser.
Pratt, whom Trump once described as a “red-haired weirdo”, flicked through his phone for parts of the King’s speech.
At the end, as the media were being ushered out, he told this masthead it was “a great honour” to be there.
Asked whether he had anything else to say to his home-town newspapers, Pratt said: “Hello to Australia.”
He was far from the only billionaire on the guest list, joined by Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, outgoing Apple boss Tim Cook and the chief executive of media conglomerate Paramount Skydance, David Ellison.
Also on the guest list, though not visible from the media stand, was BP chief executive Meg O’Neill, who was until recently the chief executive of Woodside in Perth.
The American delegation was bolstered by the likes of Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and several Supreme Court justices, including the chief, John Roberts.
They sat at two long tables that ran the length of the East Room, each adorned by three candelabra. The King, the Queen, Trump and the first lady sat at a separate table at the front of the room. Squeezed up the back were a handful of American reporters, the visiting British press pack and your correspondent.
Charles, who charmed Congress earlier in the day, continued his humorous streak by remarking that he “couldn’t help but notice the readjustments to the East Wing following your visit to Windsor Castle.
“We British, of course, made our own small attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814,” he said, a reference to the famous Burning of Washington.
Moments later, he recalled Trump telling the World Economic Forum in January that if it weren’t for the US, Europeans today would all be speaking German. “Dare I say that if it weren’t for us, you’d be speaking French,” Charles said to laughter and applause.
‘Charles agrees with me’
Trump, unusually, stuck mostly to the script – although he raised eyebrows when he asserted the King supported the war against Iran.
“We have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we’re never going to let that opponent ever – Charles agrees with me, even more than I do – we’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
A little after 9pm, journalists were kicked out, so the real fun could begin. The four-course meal comprised a garden vegetable veloute with hearts of palm salad, followed by spring herbed ravioli, a Dover sole meuniere with nutty brown butter and snow peas, and a chocolate gateau dessert. Wines were exclusively American.
Queen Camilla wore a deep pink Fiona Clare evening gown and an amethyst-and-diamond necklace that Queen Victoria inherited from her mother, and that has been passed down to British queens since then.
The first lady, meanwhile, donned a pale delphinium-pink silk strapless gown by Christian Dior Haute Couture and matching Dior pumps, with off-white Dior suede gloves.
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