This is John Baxter, my colleague Gregory Copley, commenting on the mission for the King in his

three-day visit to the United States and the mission for the President welcoming him in three days.

Remember, the King is the head of state. The President has a combined role and a burden because of it.

He's head of state and head of government. It's the head of state who will converse with the head of state in Britain, the king.

And the matter at hand is the rift between the head of government, Sir Keir Starrmer in London,

and the head of government in Washington, Donald Trump.

Can the king heal? Of course he can. This is a man who inherits a crown that was once king of America.

Here's Gregory.

Yes, well, of course, we have to see how much of President Trump's rhetoric on, you know, the control of the Western

hemisphere as being stated in definitive material terms or not, or just in the, if you

like, the control of the hegemony of that region. But the King's role is going to be to talk President Trump off a cliff in a sense.

President Trump has been rightly antagonized by the appalling behaviour and disloyalty of the British

Labour government under Sakeir Stama. And Sakeer Stama is being criticised overwhelmingly in his own country and by his own party.

And he may not even survive much longer to see the king make his state visit to the United States.

So this is a state visit. It's meant to link the two

peoples and their countries rather than deal with the intergovernmental relations. But you can be

sure that President Trump will be looking for ways to ease the situation.

He wants to look good from this point of view.

He's in charge of the United States at the time of the 250th anniversary of independence.