Revealed: King’s private concerns over Trump state visit

The King raised serious concerns about Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK in the wake of the US President’s infamous bust-up with Volodymyr Zelensky, The i Paper understands.

The monarch’s private reservations over the visit left officials scrambling, fearful that a royal snub of President Trump could detonate into a full-blown diplomatic crisis.

Multiple senior Whitehall sources have told this newspaper that the King was reticent about hosting Trump at this time because of his treatment of Zelensky.

One source said Charles was “jittery” about it, while another put it more starkly: the King “did not want to do it.”

The King’s diplomatic skills are seen as one of the UK’s strongest cards to play in dealing with Trump. Charles is expected to support government policy whatever his private views.

The revelation also illustrates how fraught UK-US diplomatic relations have been during Trump’s time in office and the King’s unique role as the bridge between No10 and the White House.

A flurry of emails and texts exchanged between Peter Mandelson, then US ambassador, and officials in March 2025 reveal a behind-the-scenes diplomatic scramble to alleviate Charles’s concerns over the visit. In one message, the peer thanks the most senior civil servant in Foreign Office for his “cool handling of the last 48 hours on the SV [State Visit]”, and in another exchange five days later Mandelson discusses how he is awaiting an update following the weekly audience between the King and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

It highlights the diplomatic tightrope being walked by the UK amid fears that the US President could pull America’s support for Ukraine completely following his clash with Zelensky in the Oval Office at the end of February last year.

The King’s concerns are understood to be included in a number of heavily redacted documents released in the so-called Mandelson files, which contained hundreds of private WhatsApp messages and email exchanges between the peer and current and former Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants and advisers.

The i Paper has not seen the unredacted messages but has spoken to people familiar with the messages and discussions.

The messages which have been published indicate that officials and diplomats were working intensively behind the scenes to allay the King’s concerns, and suggest that Starmer was due to discuss them with Charles at their weekly audience.

The key email and text exchanges took place between March 14 and 19, 2025 – a period of intense diplomacy over the war in Ukraine and just weeks after Trump had an explosive row with the Ukrainian President on 28 February.

Within that window, Trump and Vladimir Putin held a 90-minute phone call in which the Russian President refused to agree to a full ceasefire. Instead, he set out specific conditions, including an end to foreign military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv, while agreeing only to a limited pause on strikes against energy infrastructure. Zelensky had already dismissed Putin’s response to the ceasefire proposal as “manipulative,” accusing the Russian leader of trying to drag out the war.

Emails and texts reveal rare glimpse into behind-the-scenes diplomacy

In a message on March 14, 2025, Mandelson praised Olly Robbins, the then Foreign Office permanent secretary, for his “cool handling of the last 48 hours on the SV [State Visit].”

Five days later, the matter still appeared to be unresolved, with Mandelson messaging: “Olly R briefed me today. My understanding is that it is with No10 and the Palace.”

Later the same day, Mandelson sent a further text: “PM hasn’t reacted to the note yet. But I…am checking with No 10 where they’re at post-Audience [with the King] today.” In the next message, he added: “I have been asking him if he [the PM] is “fully briefed” and he says he is.”

Other messages within these exchanges appear to have been redacted to protect diplomatic relations – one of only two grounds, alongside national security, on which material could be withheld in the files.

In a further sign of the Palace’s unease during this fraught period for UK-US relations, other unredacted emails published in the Mandelson files on Tuesday showed that Charles’ top official was concerned about whether a visit by the Duchess of Edinburgh to New York should go ahead following the heated exchange between Trump and Zelensky.

The King’s principal private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, asked for an “urgent steer” from No 10 and the Foreign Office, according to an email on March 6, 2025 – eight days after Trump and Zelensky fell out.

The email from an FCDO official, forwarded to Mandelson – then US ambassador – by a senior No 10 official, said Alderton needed to know “whether the FCDO and Number 10 believe the visit should proceed (or be amended).”

Starmer hand-delivered the King’s invitation for an unprecedented second State Visit during his first official Oval Office meeting with Trump at the White House on February 27 last year.

Trump, who has frequently spoken about his high regard for the Royal family – a fascination that stems from his Scottish mother’s deep admiration for the monarchy – immediately accepted.

“He’s a beautiful man, a wonderful man… I’ve gotten to know him very well actually [in my] first term, and now second term,” Trump said of His Majesty as he accepted the invite, adding that it would be a “great, great honour” to visit Windsor Castle.

King’s public support for Zelensky

Within hours of Starmer leaving Washington the following day, Trump and Vice President JD Vance ambushed Zelensky when the scheduled US-Ukraine minerals deal signing collapsed into a televised shouting match that made headlines around the world.

Trump and Vance chastised Zelensky for not being grateful enough for US support. The meeting ended early when US officials asked Zelensky to leave the White House, and a planned joint press conference was cancelled. Trump later posted that Zelensky “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.”

Within 24 hours of the row, Zelensky arrived in Downing Street, where Starmer threw a protective arm around the Ukrainian President and told him he had the “full backing” of the United Kingdom.

The following day, Zelensky was granted an audience with the King, in what some believed was an orchestrated show of public solidarity with the wartime leader. According to reports, the highly publicised Sandringham meeting between the King and Zelensky triggered behind-the-scenes diplomatic friction between Washington and London.

Allies of Trump are understood to have conveyed to British officials that the warm, smiling photos of the King with Zelensky made Trump feel “less special” about his own invitation for a UK state visit, according to the Daily Mail.

The British line back was that the King decides whom he meets, and that the Zelensky meeting was pre-scheduled.

Trump’s state visit to the UK went ahead between September 16 -18 last year with the King giving a speech that urged the US President to stand up to the “tyranny” of Putin.

Trump and his wife were received by the King and stayed at Windsor Castle. They later met the Prime Minister at Chequers – his grace and favour home in Buckinghamshire – where they held a joint press conference.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.