Next week, President Biden will stop by the UK for a whirlwind 24-hour (if that) visit which will see him conducting meetings with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and stopping by Windsor Castle to meet with King Charles. This will be the first time President Biden and King Charles have seen each other in person since QEII’s state funeral last September. Buckingham Palace wanted President Biden to attend Charles’s coronation, but Biden said “no way, Jose” and sent his wife in his place. The palace seethed about Biden “snubbing” the king and they openly briefed the British media about how Biden was “too old” to travel to the Chubbly. Except that Biden went to Ireland just before the coronation and he had a wonderful time there. The British media and the palace seethed yet again.
So, that’s the backstory – POTUS and the king haven’t seen each other in person since the funeral and this will be Biden’s first visit to the UK since before the coronation (when he only went to Northern Ireland, lol). The White House claimed that Charles had invited Biden for a state visit after the coronation, and at first, that’s what this visit might have been. Except that Biden is basically tacking on a UK stopover before he heads to a NATO Summit in Lithuania, so no, it’s not a “state visit.” President Biden is too Irish to be wined and dined by the royals. Which begs the question – how is the British media reacting to all of this?
In April, the White House was under pressure to explain why President Joe Biden would not be attending the coronation of King Charles III in London. Was it a snub by the famously pro-Irish president? Not at all, said his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. The two heads of state had just spoken by phone and the king had invited the president for a state visit very soon.
But when Biden visits London next month it will be a trip shoehorned into a European swing centered around a N.A.T.O. summit. There will be no Buckingham Palace banquet or 82-gun salute as there was four years ago when President Donald Trump was afforded the honor of a full state visit.
DailyMail.com can reveal that no invitation for a state visit was ever extended when Biden spoke with King Charles. Instead, the president is expected to spend less than 24 hours in London before flying on to Vilnius, Lithuania, to meet N.A.T.O. allies. A full state visit would usually last for closer to four days. And need a year of planning, rather than a three-month lead in.
‘There was never an invitation for a state visit,’ said a London source. ‘The point was to try to get away from headlines about Biden snubbing Charles over the coronation, and show that the two had a decent relationship. And the White House managed to mess it up.’
A U.S. official confirmed that Biden would still meet King Charles. In the meantime, British officials have swung into action to tamp down more headlines about Biden snubs and spare the White House more blushes. London’s newspapers have begun describing the trip as a ‘mini state visit.’
But the stripped-down visit will reignite questions about whether Biden is anti-British. During an April trip he spent less than 24 hours in British Northern Ireland, before spending the bulk of his time in the Republic of Ireland. He triggered outrage when he joked that he was visiting to ensure that the Brits did not ‘screw around’ with the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of violence.
[From The Daily Mail]
They are so f–king salty, it’s basically performance art at this point. “British officials have swung into action to tamp down more headlines about Biden snubs and spare the White House more blushes.” Hey, if Biden is making a point of openly snubbing Britain, I don’t think he cares about “being spared more blushes.” He’s not blushing. He’s not embarrassed to be pro-Irish. His apathy towards the monarchy is on the record and has been for years. Sounds more like the palace and the British government is constantly doing damage control about how often President Biden snubs them. And to be clear, half of the time, Biden isn’t even “snubbing” anyone – he’s just not sycophantic towards Britain or Sunak or King Charles. Biden sees Sunak – and Britain – as a respected strategic partner and nothing more.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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