King Charles reportedly balked at hosting President Donald Trump for a state visit, prompting fears in government circles that a royal snub could ignite a “full-blown diplomatic crisis.”
Trump paid a state visit to the U.K. in September last year, during which he stayed at Windsor Castle with King Charles and Queen Camilla.
But according to an i Paper report, King Charles was “reticent” about hosting Trump, with one source telling the outlet he “did not want to do it.”
According to i Paper, that was because of how Trump had treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited the White House in February 2025.
The meeting between the pair devolved into a highly public confrontation in the Oval Office.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” and tried to pressure him to accept a deal to end the war with Russia, with Trump warning that the U.S. could withdraw support for Ukraine.
The tense exchange led to the cancellation of a planned joint press conference and a minerals agreement, and Zelensky left the White House early after the talks collapsed.
As a result, King Charles was reluctant to welcome Trump to Windsor Castle.
But that left U.K. officials scrambling to prevent a “full-blown diplomatic crisis,” according to i Paper.
“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,” the report said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Buckingham Palace for comment.
Internal emails and text messages from March 2025 show that officials attempted to address King Charles’ concerns about the state visit.
The correspondence shows then-U.K. ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson thanking a senior Foreign Office official for his “cool handling” of developments surrounding the visit and later seeking an update after the king’s weekly meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The exchanges took place between March 14 and March 19, just weeks after the clash between Trump and Zelensky.
The text messages and emails were published as part of the newly released files linked to Mandelson’s appointment as U.K. ambassador to the U.S.
The files were released by the U.K. Parliament to investigate potential failures in vetting and decision-making around Mandelson’s controversial appointment as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. amid his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson maintained a long-standing friendship with Epstein even after the pedophile’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses.
Mandelson was ultimately sacked as U.K. ambassador to the U.S. in September 2025 over his links to Epstein.
The files also revealed that Trump was gifted a bespoke red dispatch box modeled on those used by British government ministers during his state visit, after he requested the gift.
