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King Charles visits New York after Trump says UK monarch ‘agrees with me’ on Iran – US politics live | Donald Trump
King Charles visits New York after Trump says UK monarch ‘agrees with me’ on Iran
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Britain’s King Charles will use a trip to New York today to showcase cultural and economic ties between the UK and the US at a time when the so-called “special relationship” is under strain.
It is the third day of a four-day state visit, clouded by tensions over the Iran war, that began in Washington with president Donald Trump greeting the monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, AFP reported.
The New York leg will first see the royals take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial to mark 25 years since the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The city’s mayor Zohran Mamdani is not expected to meet Charles privately but will join him for the ceremony.
“This atrocity was a defining moment for America and your pain and shock were felt around the whole world,” Charles told the US Congress on Tuesday.
“We stood with you then. And we stand with you now in solemn remembrance of a day that shall never be forgotten,” he added in a speech that called for unity among western powers.
It comes as Trump said Charles agrees with him that Iran should never be allowed nuclear weapons. The president’s comments are likely to cause some embarrassment to royal aides that his views have been made public.
Trump said in his speech at the white-tie event on Tuesday evening:
We’re doing a little Middle East work right now … and we’re doing very well. 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.
They know that, and they’ve known it right now, very powerfully.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said:
The king is naturally mindful of his government’s longstanding and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.
In other developments:
-
Todd Blanche, the former defense lawyer for Donald Trump now serving as acting US attorney general, announced two charges against James Comey, the former FBI director and deputy attorney general for allegedly “knowing and willfully making a threat to kill” the president of the United States in a social media post.
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Patrick Fitzgerald, a former US attorney for the northern district of Illinois who now represents James Comey, said that his client, “vigorously denies the charges” filed against him.
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US defense secretary Pete Hegseth will face tough questions from lawmakers about the Iran war on Wednesday during his first testimony to Congress since the start of the conflict.
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President Trump will welcomes the Artemis II astronauts to the White House later today. The capsule returned to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, almost a month after blasting off on humanity’s first lunar trip in more than a half century.
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The supreme court will hear arguments Wednesday over the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for migrants fleeing war and natural disaster, one in a series of immigration cases the high court is considering against the backdrop of the president’s far-reaching immigration crackdown.
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The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday after a key policy meeting, likely the last chaired by central bank chief Jerome Powell. Policymakers will weigh the risks of surging energy prices and snarled supply chains due to the US-Israel war on Iran, with analysts widely expecting a third pause in a row.
Key events
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked King Charles for his speech in Washington yesterday.
He said:
I thank His Majesty King Charles III, royal family, the United Kingdom, and all valiant American hearts for this clarion call for unity in support of Ukraine across the Atlantic.
This is exactly what is needed to bring dignified and lasting peace to Ukraine and all of Europe. The people of Ukraine deeply appreciate all the support provided by the United Kingdom and the United States. Thank-you.
US president Donald Trump has warned Iran that “they better get smart soon” and sign a non-nuclear deal, in his latest social media post.
Trump shared an image of himself, wearing sunglasses and carrying a gun, set against the backdrop of – presumably – Middle Eastern towns and villages being bombed, with the caption “No more Mr Nice Guy”.
He wrote:
Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon! President DJT
In his state dinner speech King Charles appeared to suggest to president Trump that the purpose of his state visit was to “put the ‘special’ back into our relationship” – just as Queen Elizabeth II did almost 70 years ago.
Charles spoke about the ties between Britain and the US, and implied it mirrored events in the aftermath of the 1956 Suez crisis, when Elizabeth toured the US to help repair relations.
Britain was left humiliated when the US refused to support its campaign with France to regain control of the Suez canal from Egypt, and the brief conflict marked the end of the UK’s role as a global military power.
Charles told the dinner guests, who included the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and the golfer Rory McIlroy: “And yes, we have had our moments of difficulty, even in more recent history. When my mother visited in 1957, not the least of her tasks was to help put the ‘special’ back into our relationship after a crisis in the Middle East.”
Some of the guests laughed when the king said: “Nearly 70 years on, it is hard to imagine anything like that happening today…”
King Charles to visit New York to commemorate 9/11 victims
Britain’s King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla arrive in New York on Wednesday to commemorate victims of the 11 September terror attacks on the city.
The king and queen’s scheduled arrival in New York follows a packed day in Washington on Tuesday, when Charles delivered a speech to Congress, held private meetings with president Donald Trump amid tensions between the US and UK over the Iran war and sat down with leaders of the US tech industry, Reuters reported.
Charles and Camilla will begin their day in New York with a ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by al-Qaeda suicide bombers on 11 September, 2001. Charles is expected to meet with New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the ceremony.
The king will then head to Harlem to visit a grassroots community organization that created a sustainable after-school urban farming initiative in an effort to combat food insecurity, according to local media.
Meanwhile, Camilla will celebrate the 100th birthday of AA Milne’s fictional character Winnie the Pooh on behalf of her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, which Buckingham Palace is calling a “literary engagement” event.
US supreme court to hear whether protected status of Haitians and Syrians can be revoked
José Olivares
The supreme court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday over whether the Trump administration can strip the temporary protected status (TPS) of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Haitians, under a program that has protected them from deportation due to safety concerns in their home countries.
People with TPS are given the permission to live and work in the US because the government has deemed their home countries to be unsafe due to war, political instability or natural disasters. In the past year, the Trump administration has attempted to cut the program for various countries, opening the door to the removal of hundreds of thousands of protected immigrants in the US.
Last year, the supreme court allowed the administration to strip TPS status for more than 300,000 Venezuelans under the court’s emergency docket. Now, the court will hear arguments challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to remove the same protections from Syrians and Haitians.
If the supreme court sides with the Trump administration in its effort to cut the program for Syrians and Haitians, analysts say the administration would likely seek to end the TPS program for all countries. Nearly 1.3 million people were TPS holders at the start of the second Trump administration.
The TPS program, established in 1990, does not offer a pathway to citizenship but allows citizens from designated countries to live and work in the US if they are unable to return safely to their home countries. TPS designations can be extended by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Haitians have been protected from deportation under the TPS program since 2010 and Syrians have been protected since 2012. Earlier this month, the House passed legislation to extend the protection for Haitian immigrants under the TPS program for three years.
David Smith
A flick of Oscar Wilde here, a nod to Henry Kissinger there, a sprinkling of Charles Dickens here, a dollop of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt there. Job done!
The British monarch mobilised an elite squad of dead white men, leavened with humour and subliminal politicking, on Tuesday in a charm offensive aimed over Donald Trump’s head and squarely at the US Congress. Judging by the cheers and minute-long applause he received at the end, the soft power flex worked a treat and the special relationship lives to fight another day.
But the king’s central message – of two great nations entwined in destiny – was also an inadvertent reminder of two empires that look increasingly shabby these days with rightwing populists on the march and the ghost of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hovering in the shadows.
Charles became the first British king to address the Congress almost exactly 250 years after the US denounced his fifth great-grandfather as a tyrant and declared its independence. “You’ll be back,” predicted George III in Hamilton and yet cricket, damp and a lack of air conditioning never clinched the deal.
What would America’s founding fathers have made of seeing George III’s direct descendant speak to their successors? Donald Trump mused at the White House on Tuesday: “They might be absolutely shocked but probably only for a moment. Surely they would be delighted that the wounds of war healed into the most cherished friendship.”
Well, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and co would surely be more shocked to discover that they now have their own mad king in the White House. If Charles spots signs saying “No kings” on his travels, he shouldn’t take it personally.
King Charles visits New York after Trump says UK monarch ‘agrees with me’ on Iran
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Britain’s King Charles will use a trip to New York today to showcase cultural and economic ties between the UK and the US at a time when the so-called “special relationship” is under strain.
It is the third day of a four-day state visit, clouded by tensions over the Iran war, that began in Washington with president Donald Trump greeting the monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, AFP reported.
The New York leg will first see the royals take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial to mark 25 years since the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The city’s mayor Zohran Mamdani is not expected to meet Charles privately but will join him for the ceremony.
“This atrocity was a defining moment for America and your pain and shock were felt around the whole world,” Charles told the US Congress on Tuesday.
“We stood with you then. And we stand with you now in solemn remembrance of a day that shall never be forgotten,” he added in a speech that called for unity among western powers.
It comes as Trump said Charles agrees with him that Iran should never be allowed nuclear weapons. The president’s comments are likely to cause some embarrassment to royal aides that his views have been made public.
Trump said in his speech at the white-tie event on Tuesday evening:
We’re doing a little Middle East work right now … and we’re doing very well. 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.
They know that, and they’ve known it right now, very powerfully.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said:
The king is naturally mindful of his government’s longstanding and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.
In other developments:
-
Todd Blanche, the former defense lawyer for Donald Trump now serving as acting US attorney general, announced two charges against James Comey, the former FBI director and deputy attorney general for allegedly “knowing and willfully making a threat to kill” the president of the United States in a social media post.
-
Patrick Fitzgerald, a former US attorney for the northern district of Illinois who now represents James Comey, said that his client, “vigorously denies the charges” filed against him.
-
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth will face tough questions from lawmakers about the Iran war on Wednesday during his first testimony to Congress since the start of the conflict.
-
President Trump will welcomes the Artemis II astronauts to the White House later today. The capsule returned to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, almost a month after blasting off on humanity’s first lunar trip in more than a half century.
-
The supreme court will hear arguments Wednesday over the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for migrants fleeing war and natural disaster, one in a series of immigration cases the high court is considering against the backdrop of the president’s far-reaching immigration crackdown.
-
The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday after a key policy meeting, likely the last chaired by central bank chief Jerome Powell. Policymakers will weigh the risks of surging energy prices and snarled supply chains due to the US-Israel war on Iran, with analysts widely expecting a third pause in a row.
Forwarder, a Russian-flagged ship which left port in Primorsk last week, entered the Channel on Wednesday evening.
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Key events
Greg Wood
Gosden and O’Brien rivalry crackles in Gold Cup
The rivalry between top trainers John Gosden and Aidan O’Brien is a long way short of a feud – “Aidan and I are big rivals”, Gosden said on Wednesday, “but we get on and we tease each other a lot. There’s no harm in that and it’s a little bit of banter.”
But it still makes for an interesting undercurrent as Gosden’s Trawlerman, bidding to become only the second eight-year-old winner since 1900, takes on the up-and-coming Scandinavia, last year’s St Leger winner, in the feature event of the week.
Gosden’s “teasing” has included frequent references to the big teams of runners that Ballydoyle sends to many Group Ones, and when O’Brien suggested last autumn that he would love to see Ombudsman, the winner of Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes, line up for the Irish Champion Stakes, Gosden responded that his stable star would not “appreciate running against multiple entries from one stable on a track with a short straight.”
The possibility that Ballydoyle was employing “team tactics” with its runners was also highlighted after Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes, when Christophe Soumillon, on the O’Brien second-string, Puerto Rico, picked up an eight-day ban for riding “in a manner to benefit” his stable companion and second-favourite, Gstaad.
There is little chance of a dust-up over tactics in the Gold Cup, however, as Scandinavia is O’Brien’s only runner in the race and Trawlerman is likely to make his own running. The regular to-and-fro between the two trainers, though, will add extra spice to the closing stages if Trawlerman and Scandinavia are duking it out in the final furlong.
Greg Wood
6.10 BUCKINGHAM PALACE STAKES HANDICAP preview
The money is all for runners in high-numbered stalls in the finale, and that’s hardly surprising given the way that races on the straight course have been unfolding this week. Jack Channon’s Mezcala, in stall 30, is currently a narrow favourite and remains feasibly handicapped dropping back to seven furlongs from a mile, while Cosi Bello (26) was a bit better than his narrow winning margin might imply at Haydock last time and also has form in a big field on this course. Elerak, highest of all in 31, is also attracting support to give Billy Loughnane another winner at the meeting, while Blue Brother, unraced since suffering all manner of bad luck when fancied for the Hunt Cup here last summer, is another fascinating contender from stall 28.
Timeform top-rated: Dance In The Storm
SELECTION: BLUE BROTHER
Greg Wood
5.35 HAMPTON COURT STAKES preview
Not the loftiest event on the Royal Ascot schedule by any means, but still an interesting contest for three-year-olds that are just below the top rung, for the moment at least, and it occasionally highlights a colt on the way to better things. Endorsement, the Aidan O’Brien-trained favourite, was still engaged in the Derby until quite late in the day, and drops back to 10 furlongs having skated up in a Listed race over a mile-and-a-half just a fortnight ago. Maho Bay too was seen as a possible for a run in the Derby until blotting his copy book by finishing fourth behind Maltese Cross in the Lingfield Derby Trial, but the winner there went on to finish second at Epsom and so the form may well be better than it seems. The list of Derby trial disappointments also includes Morshdi, fifth in the Dante, while Oxagon, the Craven Stakes winner in April, has failed to build on that in two runs since, though the latest was admittedly a Classic as he finished 12th of 16 in the French Derby at Chantilly. Generic, meanwhile, was seven lengths behind Constitution River – surely the best three-year-old colt seen out this year – in the Dee Stakes at Chester, having only started his racing career in March, and will also be bang there on that form with only marginal improvement.
Timeform top-rated: Endorsement.
SELECTION: GENERIC
Greg Wood
4.50 BRITANNIA STAKES preview
This straight-mile handicap for three-year-olds is, for me at least, the toughest Royal Ascot test of them all from a betting point of view – looking down the list of previous winners, I’m fairly sure that Perotto, in 2021, is the only winner I’ve had this century – and this year’s renewal looks as competitive as always. It looks as though I’ve managed to find the favourite, though, as David Marnane’s Jamestown has attracted plenty of support this morning, and has both the high draw and the run style that you need to be looking for on the straight course this week. A list of dangerous opponents is effectively everything else – even the 80-1 shot Winding Stream is within 7lb of the top-rated horse on Timeform’s numbers and was racing in Group company last time – but We’re Goosers is sure to be popular as a result of his nine-and-a-half length win last time, and so too Organise, from the John & Thady Gosden yard, who was touched off in a well-run race last time and sports first-time cheekpieces today. Moonfall, an eye-catcher at Chester in May, and Exclusive Code, the winner of a big-field maiden at Newbury, are also on the short-list, but frankly, your guess is as good as mine.
Timeform top-rated: We’re Goosers.
SELECTION: JAMESTOWN
An inaugural “Royal Ascot colour of the year” has been introduced this year, and on Gold Cup day guests were encouraged to wear their best “bright tomato” shade as part of the dress code. This chap got the memo.
Oddschecker market movers
Greg Wood
4.15 GOLD CUP preview
The staying division is currently missing a truly “public” horse like the three-time winner, Stradivarius, but Trawlerman, last year’s winner, will be a stern test for the posse of four-year-olds in this year’s Gold Cup field that could conceivably run up a sequence over the next few years if all goes well. The list is headed by Aidan O’Brien’s Scandinavia, last year’s St Leger winner, who arrives in Berkshire looking for a sixth straight success, while Rahiebb and Carmers, second and fifth at Doncaster, are also looking to establish themselves as Cup horses with a win in the most prestigious staying event of them all. Other live runners include Al Riffa, last season’s Irish St Leger winner, for the Joseph O’Brien stable, and George Scott’s Caballo De Mar, a Group One winner over two miles in France last time out. My idea of the best bet in the race, though, is Carmers, on the basis that Trawlerman missed his intended prep race in May and may be slightly short of his best, while Paddy Twomey’s runner – who beat both Scandinavia and Rahiebb in the Queen’s Vase here last summer – has as much chance as either of his fellow four-year-olds of finding the necessary improvement stepping up to two-and-a-half miles.
Timeform top-rated: Trawlerman
SELECTION: CARMERS
Royal Ascot Procession List
1st Carriage
The King
The Queen
The Earl of Snowdon
Ms Isabelle de la Bruyère
2nd Carriage
The Princess Royal
Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence
The Duke of Edinburgh
The Duchess of Edinburgh
3rd Carriage
Princess Zahra Aga Khan
HH Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah al-Thani
Mrs Zara Tindall
Mr Willie Mullins
4th Carriage
Lord Cavendish
Lady Cavendish
Mr Stanley Tucci
Ms Felicity Blunt
Stanley Tucci is in the carriages today. An acclaimed actor, of course, he’s also well known for his cooking so perhaps he helped with luncheon at Windsor Castle to which the carriage guests are invited before their trip down the track. Now you know why the racing doesn’t start till 2.30pm!
Andrew is innocent!
I know you would miss the regular royal spot ahead of the Royal Procession list announcement at noon if we didn’t share some and today’s concerns Lady Victoria Hervey who has arrived at the races today. For those unawarer she’s a British socialite and former model who dated Prince Andrew (now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) briefly in 1999. Throughout the fallout from his associations with Jeffrey Epstein, she has remained one of the prince’s most vocal defenders. In an interview with LBC in February, not only did she admit to being named in the Epstein files herself, but branded anyone who wasn’t as a “loser”. With friends like this …
Greg Wood
3.40 RIBBLESDALE STAKES preview
Sound the stat klaxon, it’s time for the one about Oaks runners in the Ribblesdale as Legacy Link attempts to win Ascot’s Group Two for three-year-old fillies having run in the Epsom Classic last time out. A total of 33 fillies have lined up for this race after running in the Oaks since 2010 and just two have won, with the list of beaten runners including three favourites and seven more that set off at 5-1 or shorter. It is a big ask, in other words, and Legacy Link, the Epsom runner-up behind impressive winner Thundering On, will deserve huge credit if she can pull it off on what will be her third start in just over a month. Earth Shot and French challenger Gilded Prize are the likeliest opponents to give her something to think about, and while neither managed to win last time out, both look sure to blossom over this trip. And there is a royal runner to look out for too, although Golden Orbit, a home-bred daughter of Sea The Stars who was a beaten favourite last time, is friendless in the market at 33-1 and the first-time blinkers will need to spark serious improvement.
Timeform top-rated: Legacy Link
SELECTION: EARTH SHOT
Greg Wood
3.05 KING GEORGE V STAKES HANDICAP preview
Plenty of future Group-race winners have won this handicap for three-year-olds in the past, and plenty have been beaten in it too, as it is a race that generally throws up a hard luck story or three. All but a handful of the 19 runners have shown enough promise already to be credible winners if they continue to progress, with Charlie Appleby’s Into the Light,Heyzoom (Owen Burrows) and Tierra Del Toro (Ralph Beckett) probably the most obvious names to note, alongside Joseph O’Brien’s Enceladus, with Ryan Moore booked to ride in the absence of a runner from the trainer’s dad’s stable. O’Brien jnr is having a stormer of a meeting so far, and was tied with O’Brien snr on three winners at the top of the trainers’ table after day two, and Enceladus is one of four from the stable in this race, including Cannes, the favourite, who got off the mark at the third attempt at Leopardstown in May. Heyzoom posted an excellent winning time when successful over 10 furlongs at Newbury last time, while Into The Light has been narrowly beaten on his last two starts but was given a lot to do by William Buick over a two-furlong shorter trip last time.
Timeform top-rated: Heyzoom.
SELECTION: HEYZOOM
2.30 CHESHAM STAKES preview
Aidan O’Brien’s first chance of the afternoon to get the one winner he needs to be the first trainer to a century at Royal Ascot comes via his colts Aix La Chapelle and second-string South Dakota, in a race that he has won five times in the last decade. Aix La Chapelle looked very rough around the edges on his debut at the Curragh just a fortnight ago but still ran out an easy winner and should find plenty for the experience. He is drawn in stall five, though, which is less than ideal on the evidence from the straight course over the first two days. Another leading Irish-trained runner, Fozzy Stack’s Nola Soul, also overcame greenness to win on debut and could give the favourite plenty to think about, while George Scott’s Sea Venture found all the trouble going on her first start over six furlongs before showing a smart turn of foot to win with plenty to spare. As a daughter of the Derby winner, Sea The Stars, she looks certain to improve for the extra furlong today.
Timeform top-rated: Aix La Chapelle
SELECTION: SEA VENTURE
Going to start putting up some previews of the day’s action from our racing correspondent and tipster Greg Wood, who is currently leading the national press challenge in the Racing Post.
Good morning. It was overcast this morning but no precipitation so the going for day three of Royal Ascot is: Good to Firm and there’s very little between the different sides of the track.
GoingStick readings at 8.30am:
Stands’ side: 8.8
Centre: 8.7
Far side: 8.7
Round course: 7.5
We have one non-runners so far so cross this off your list of possible wagers …
4.50pm Britannia Stakes: 16 Bobby McGee (vet’s certificate – temperature)
Preamble
Good morning from Ascot on the third morning of the Royal meeting 2026 – Gold Cup day – where Aidan O’Brien is poised to become the first trainer to saddle a century of winners at Flat racing’s showpiece event, having moved to 99 with a winner in the first race on Wednesday.
There are more races to aim at these days than there were in the era when the late Sir Henry Cecil racked up what was, at the time, a record 75 winners, and while the Sir Michael Stoute was active well into the five-day Ascot era and had saddled 82 by the time of his recent retirement, O’Brien’s record is still an astonishing achievement, even by the standards of the pre-eminent trainer of the last 25 years.
He has a total of seven runners on today’s card as he looks to reach three figures, including Scandinavia, the somewhat uneasy favourite, in the Gold Cup at 4.15 and opening up with Aix La Chapelle in the Chesham Stakes at 2.30.
Scandinavia’s main Gold Cup rival, according to the betting at least, is last year’s winner, Trawlerman, and there is now less than a point between them in the betting. Elsewhere on the day three card, the Oaks form gets an early test as Legacy Link, the Epsom runner-up, lines up for the Ribblesdale Stakes (3.40) just two weeks on from her big run in the Classic, while the Britannia Handicap at 4.50 could well turn out to be the most competitive event of the entire meeting – just two of the 30 runners are currently on offer at single-figure odds.
Another 5mm of water was applied overnight to maintain the going at good-to-firm, thoughts on possible winners are here, and the action is underway at 2.30 on what could be a historic day at Royal Ascot. One hundred is only a number, but it’s an impressive number all the same.
The Bank last cut interest rates in December but upheaval in the Middle East has stalled any further reductions.
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