King Charles Jokes and Delivers Serious Message to Congress

King Charles III walked into the U.S. House chamber on April 28 and did something few expected from a monarch delivering a diplomatic address while also joking around with Congress.

The king’s remarks to a joint meeting of Congress marked only the second time in history a British monarch has spoken before the American legislature. The first was his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who addressed Congress in 1991 following the Gulf War. As The New York Times reported, Charles worked the chamber as he cracked jokes that won over both sides of the aisle.

“This is a city which symbolizes a period in our shared history, or what Charles Dickens might have called ‘A Tale of Two Georges.’ The first president, George Washington, and my five-times great-grandfather, King George III. Please rest assured I am not here as part of some cunning rear-guard action,” he said, pausing as laughter rolled through the chamber.

The address drew 12 standing ovations, according to Vanity Fair, which reported that Charles had spent months preparing the speech, going through multiple drafts with senior palace aides and giving it “a final scrub on the morning itself.” A source close to the king told Vanity Fair he was “anxious” to get it right. “The King was absolutely determined to get it right. There were many drafts and a lot of time went into it,” the source said.

The visit comes at a tense moment in the U.S.-U.K. relationship. Fox News reported that the state visit, the first by a reigning British monarch since Queen Elizabeth came in 2007, was partly intended to mend strained ties, as Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have clashed over the war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Trump had posted on Truth Social: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.”

Charles addressed that tension directly, according to ABC News, by calling on Congress to recommit to the NATO alliance and stressing that the mutual defense ties between the two nations “are hardwired together through relationships, measured not in years, but in decades.” He invoked the only time Article 5 of the NATO charter has been triggered, when allies answered America’s call after 9/11. “We stood with you then, and we stand with you now in solemn remembrance of a day that shall never be forgotten,” he said.

The king also called for continued support of Ukraine, drawing bipartisan applause despite ongoing fractures in Congress over assistance to Kyiv. “Today, Mr. Speaker, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people,” he said, per ABC News.

His remarks on checks and balances also drew enthusiastic applause from both parties. Charles hailed the Magna Carta and tied it to the American Bill of Rights. “Our Declaration of Rights of 1689 was not only the foundation of our constitutional monarchy, but also provided the source of so many of the principles reiterated, often verbatim, in the American Bill of Rights of 1791,” he said.

NBC News noted that Charles also acknowledged the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner just days earlier. “We meet, too, in the aftermath of the incident not far from this great building that sought to harm the leadership of your Nation and to foment wider fear and discord,” he said.

The decorum inside the chamber was striking. ABC News reported that nobody walked out, nobody jeered, and the seats stayed full throughout, a sharp contrast to recent State of the Union addresses marked by walkouts and outbursts.

The day ended with a white-tie state dinner at the White House, the first formal dinner of that kind since President George W. Bush hosted Queen Elizabeth in 2007, CBS News reported. During the dinner, Charles presented Trump with the original bell from HMS Trump, a British submarine launched in 1944 that served in the Pacific during World War II. “And should you ever need to get hold of us, just give us a ring,” he said, per Fox News, prompting warm laughter from the room.

As the king and president stood together before entering the dinner, Trump turned to reporters.

“He made a great speech. I’m very jealous,” Trump said of Charles’s earlier address to Congress.