In April, the White House was under pressure to explain why President Joe Biden would not attend King Charles III’s coronation in London.
Was it a censure by the famously pro-Irish president?
Not at all, said his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. The two heads of state had just spoken by telephone and the king had very soon invited the president for a state visit.
But when Biden visits London next month, it will be a trip swallowed up in a European swing around a NATO summit. There won’t be a Buckingham Palace banquet or 82-gun salute like four years ago when President Donald Trump was given the honor of a full state visit.
DailyMail.com can reveal that no state visit invitation was ever issued when Biden spoke to King Charles.
President Joe Biden will meet King Charles III next month on a visit to the UK, according to a US official, but the trip will not be a ‘state visit’
Instead, the president is expected to spend less than 24 hours in London before flying on to Vilnius, Lithuania, to meet with NATO allies.
A full state visit would usually take closer to four days. And needing a year of planning, rather than a three-month head start.
“There has never been an invitation for a state visit,” says a London source. “The point was to try and get away from the headlines about Biden snubbing Charles over the coronation, and show that the two had a decent relationship.
“And the White House managed to screw it up.”
A US official confirmed that Biden would still meet King Charles.
In the meantime, British officials have swung into action to quell more headlines about Biden snubs and spare the White House more blushing.
The London newspapers describe the trip as a ‘mini state visit’.
But the stripped-down visit will raise the question of whether Biden is anti-British. On a trip in April, he spent less than 24 hours in British Northern Ireland before spending most of his time in the Republic of Ireland.
He sparked outrage when he joked that he was visiting to make sure the British didn’t “mess around” with the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of violence.
This will be the first time Biden has met Charles since he was crowned in May. However, they have met before. They can be seen here in 2021 during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow
Biden’s visit contrasts with President Donald Trump’s state visit in 2019, when he was given the full glory of the British royal family, including a Buckingham Palace banquet
The Bidens also met the late Queen in 2021 when the G7 summit was held in Cornwall, UK
And his administration has killed off any immediate prospect of a US-UK deal that London pursued after leaving the European Union’s single market.
Then there was his decision not to go to the coronation. Jean-Pierre was questioned on April 5 about why Biden sent the first lady in his place.
She responded by describing the warm nature of a 30-minute conversation between the two the day before.
“He talked about how he enjoyed meeting the Queen, I would say, in 2021… him and the first lady in Windsor. And he hoped to visit again soon,’ she said.
During that call, the king offered him to come and pay a state visit, which the president accepted. And so they will see each other again soon.’
But the White House’s official reading of the call did not spell out an invitation or mention a state visit.
Instead, it read: ‘The President has also expressed his wish to meet the King in the United Kingdom in the future.’
Insiders say Biden’s visit is more akin to Trump’s 2018 visit, which included less formal meetings with the Queen and other royals
A senior US official confirmed that the trip would not be a state visit.
“POTUS will have an engagement with the King on his next trip to the UK, as we announced earlier this year, but it will not be a state visit,” they said, using an abbreviation for “President of the United States.”
Biden is also expected to meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The full glory of the British royal family, on the other hand, was on display when Trump paid a state visit in June 2019.
His visit lasted three days and he was treated to a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, where guests dined on steamed halibut with watercress mousse and rump of lamb.
Foreign leaders are also often invited to stay at Buckingham Palace, although the guest rooms were being renovated at the time of Trump’s visit.
Biden’s visit may seem more like Trump’s trip a year earlier, when he had more informal meetings with the British royal family.