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Calorogus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Pallace Intrigue. I
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am your host, Mark Francis. King Charles is preparing for
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his visit to the United States. The trip is being
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described by some royal observers as a significant moment in
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the king's reign, with attension focused on the broader relationship
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between the United Kingdom and the United States. Royal commentator
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Duncan Larcom tells The Mirror this is one of, if
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not the biggest tests of King Charles since he became
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monarch because a historically special relationship is in a perilous situation.
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Donald Trump is his own force and we know how
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much the royal connection means to him, so the pressures
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on Charles to make this a success definitely. A planned
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garden party during the trip is drawing attention for a
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dress code that departs from long established royal tradition. According
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to reports, invitations to the event, said to take place
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at the British Ambassador's residence, advise guests to wear lounge
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suits and day dresses, but include the notable instruction hats
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not encouraged. The details raised eyebrows because hats are typically
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a defining feature of royal garden parties in the UK,
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where guests, particularly women, often wear hats or fascinators, and
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the monarch traditionally appears in formal headwear. On substack, Tina
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Brown writes, Trump, the dist former developer from Queen's who
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decked out the Oval office in fool's gold, is still
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awed by the monarchy as the ultimate prestige brand. He
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loves to boast that he was Queen Elizabeth's favorite president.
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His proudest photowop is of his twenty nineteen state visit
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to Buckingham Palace, where at the full on trumpets and
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Tiara's dinner with her Majesty, he comforted himself with unusual
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decorum afterwards. According to royal biographer Robert Hardman, in his
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excellent new book, Elizabeth the Queen described Trump as amusing
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a lexical raised eyebrow that any student of upper class
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nuance knows is subtly, smilingly dismissive. I am told King
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Charles privately despises his presidential host, Trump, though he was
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currying favor when he stomped on the constitutional monarchy's separation
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of powers with the observation, I think the King would
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have taken a very different stand on the war in Iran,
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but he doesn't do that. In the unlikely event the
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President in his speech trashes the British PM. There's a
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malingering Ally, Charles will look down and fiddle with his
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gold signet ring, then proceed unfazed with an elegant oration
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about what was broken in seventeen seventy six, quickly repaired
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hands across the ocean in two world wars, shoring up
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democracy at a time of peril, side by side in
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Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. The King and Queen know they
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can ace this visit, whatever the tensions. The Palace also
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sees it as a pleasing opportunity both to blur the
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frayed Transatlantic reality and to pick up the monarch at home.
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It reminds the UK that, for all the recent familial
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catastrophe with Andrew, its head of state is one of
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the few people in public life who still know how
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to behave. The Telegraph suggests the shadow of Jeffrey Epstein
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looms over King Charles Trump test. According to the Telegraph,
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they are damned if they still go ahead, as the
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Prime Minister advises them, equally damned if they call it off,
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as Ed Davy in a sizeable proportion of the public
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would prefer them to do. In the protest at Donald
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Trump's policies and grave insults to hm armed forces. They
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are already criticized for not meeting the victims of Jeffrey Epstein,
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but they know there are legal complications, and the fact
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is that, as Milannia, Trump's odd statement last week demonstrated,
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the very mention of the late pedophile can overshadow the
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entire news agenda and quite possibly provoke some unhinged outburst
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from the President himself. Less Controversially, they won't be meeting
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Harry and Megan either, which matters to the minority of
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people who irrationally take science in the family's private civil war.
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The whole thing looks like a minefield and trickier to
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navigate safely than the strait of horn Moves. I suppose
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it would be even worse if our head of government
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were also head of state, and poor old Starmer would
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have to be doing the honors. A mild argument for
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a constitutional monarchy. I suppose Charles and Camilla are being
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accompanied by the Gaulish presence of the king's disgraced brother
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and the very real and profoundly Unjesus like apparition that
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is Donald Trump. As I write these words, I can
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hear in my mind's ear our monarch mumbling, ghastly man
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as he too wonders how he's going to make it
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through the mercifully short circus. He's been trained and preparing
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for the job for some seventy seven years, but aside
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from his troubled private affairs, this will be one of
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the greatest public challenges. He must realize that even his
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most private and sensitive conversations with the President could be
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used to entertain some crowd at a future Republican fundraising dinner,
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complete with mimicking of the King begging him not to
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leave NATO and protect the rainforest O Rangutans. You know
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the Trump stick. He did it to Macron, he can
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do it to Charles. The King will keep to small talk.
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The Palace and his government have done their best to
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protect him and Cambella. The itinerary is packed with closely
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controlled ceremonials. The speech to Congress will be the usual
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stuff about the special relationship and gentle jokes about Winnie
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the Pooh and reminiscences about when his grandfather and grandmother
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George the sixth and Queen Elizabeth came over in nineteen
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thirty nine with just the faintest sense of an echo
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of past international tensions when we wondered whose side America
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would be on. So the visi will be a success.
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The King and Queen will have a nice stopover in
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Permuta to decompress, and America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday
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card will have been delivered by a hand. But back
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home the breach within the Transatlantic Alliance will be as
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real and as serious as before. And the King, who
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pointedly announced last month he was making the trip on
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the advice of his ministers, will be pleased that he
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will never have to be nice to the Tangerine monster
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ever again or palace in just a moment. King Charles
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has been presented with a green blue Peter badge and
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recognition of his long standing environmental work. The presentation took
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place at Dumfries's house and was filmed as part of
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a special episode marking Earth Day. The badge, typically awarded
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to individuals demonstrating commitment to protecting the environment, was given
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to the King an acknowledgment of his decades long advocacy
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on sustainability. During the visit, the King met with young
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participants involved in programs run by the King's Foundation, hearing
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about projects focused on reducing food waste and supporting environmental initiatives.
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Jacqueline Farrell, Executive Director for Education at the Foundation, said,
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it has been wonderful to see our students receive their
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blue Peter Green badges today on the Dumfries House estate
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and how special for them to receive them alongside the King.
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She added, after taking part in our program, one hundred
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percent of students stated they feel more aware of food
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waste and its effects on the planet and what they
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can do as a result, which is so heartening for
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the King's Foundation Education team. In his sub Stack Royal
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inside of Deep Crown Rights, it was Princess Anne who
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gave me the line I have not been able to
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put down since. Speaking at the opening of the Queen
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Elizabeth the Second Garden in Regent's Park, she offered this,
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like all gardens, it will change and will always feel different,
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and perhaps that's always as important as the basics remaining
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the same. The Royal family is in many respects a garden.
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There are elements within it that have been there for
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so long they feel like the landscape itself, permanent and
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load bearing, inconceivable to remove. And then one morning you
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look up and realize that what felt permanent has quietly
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incrementally shifted. Every gardener knows that the work is not
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only about what one cultivates, It is equally about what
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one removes. Weeds are not a moral failing of the garden.
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They are simply a fact of it. They arrive, as
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weeds do, often without invitation, sometimes from seeds carried in
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from considerable distances, and if left unattended, they do not
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remain merely decorative problems. They spread, They crowd, They consume
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resources that were intended for other things. The experienced gardener
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does not rage the weed, does not hold a press
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conference about the weed, does not write a memoir about
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the weed. He removes it cleanly where possible, thoroughly always,
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and then he turns his attention back to what he
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is actually trying to grow. This brings me to King Charles,
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who is, as it happens, a gardener in the literal sense.
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His speech on Tuesday was I thought the speech of
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a gardener. The references to his mother's belief that goodness
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will always prevail, the renewal of his own pledge of
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duty and service, the quiet insistence of the day be
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marked with a celebration of life well lived, rather than
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an absence felt. These are not the words of a
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man performing grief for an audience. The other words of
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a man who has thought carefully about what he inherited
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and what he intends to pass on in the habit.
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If you'd like to email us addresses the Palace Intrigue
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at gmail dot com, please hit that follow button on
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leaves a nice review of him during the show. I'm
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Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace
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Intrigue and good terms