King Charles addresses joint meeting of Congress — second British monarch to do so

King Charles III delivers an address to a joint meeting of Congress on April 28, becoming only the second British monarch to speak to Congress after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. Charles and Queen Camilla are on a state visit to the United States — the first since Charles became king in 2022 — partly timed to the 250th anniversary of American independence. Speaking in the House chamber before Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson, Charles emphasizes the shared history and democratic values of the United States and United Kingdom. He shows NATO''s importance and calls on Congress to recommit to collective defense, despite public tensions with the Trump administration over military alliances. He invokes the only use of Article 5 in NATO''s history — after the September 11 attacks — and announces that he and Camilla will visit New York''s 9/11 memorial ahead of the 25th anniversary. The address draws bipartisan standing ovations — a rare sight in a divided Congress. That evening, Trump hosts a formal white tie state dinner at the White House, the first since President George W. Bush hosted Queen Elizabeth in 2007. Charles gifts Trump the original bell from HMS Trump, a British submarine that served in the Pacific in World War II. Trump publicly alluded to the U.S.-Israel-Iran war during remarks, placing Charles in a diplomatically delicate position.