With a Letter From King Charles, Starmer Was Welcomed Into Trump’s Court

King Charles III was not in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon. But his regal presence loomed over the meeting between President Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which felt at times less like a big-power showdown over Ukraine than a courtesy call between two Renaissance royal courts.

From the moment Mr. Starmer pulled an embossed letter from his breast pocket and handed it to Mr. Trump, with an invitation from the king for the president to make a state visit to Britain, the much-anticipated encounter between these two leaders relaxed into something friendlier, but also somehow less momentous.

“A beautiful man, a wonderful man,” Mr. Trump said, after poring over the two-page letter, which was signed “Charles R” in a bold, oversized hand not unlike that used by the president to sign dozens of executive orders.

It fell to Mr. Starmer to explain the diplomatic novelty represented by the invitation: Mr. Trump is the first elected leader in the modern era to be honored with two state visits to Britain. “This is really special,” Mr. Starmer told the assembled press corps. “This has never happened before.”

The prime minister might have added: Never has an elected British leader deployed the monarchy so transparently to win the favor of another head of state.

Mr. Starmer is well aware of Mr. Trump’s enchantment with the royal family. The president viewed his last state visit in 2019, during which Queen Elizabeth II threw him a lavish banquet at Buckingham Palace, as a highlight of his first term. Mr. Trump has lately taken to referring to himself in royal terms: “LONG LIVE THE KING!” he posted on social media, after moving to kill New York City’s congestion pricing program.