Maintenance crews near the White House hung the wrong flag last week while preparing for King Charles’s visit, putting up the Australian flag instead of the Union Jack on lampposts lined for the royal arrival. The Transportation Secretary’s office said the mistake was soon rectified.
King Charles and Queen Camilla landed on Monday and were received by President Donald Trump and the First Lady in the West Wing for tea and a tour of the White House’s new beehives. During the visit, a bee landed on Trump’s outstretched palm, a small interruption to an occasion built around ceremony and symbolism.
The next morning, American military units and bands marched through rain on the South Lawn as part of Charles’s welcome ceremony, one of the formal events tied to a trip planned in celebration of America’s semiquincentennial. The visit has blended state pageantry with the White House’s own displays, from the beehives to the carefully staged welcome on the lawn.
Trump, speaking at the White House, called it “What a beautiful, British day this is” as the royal visit got underway. He also said of the tree being shown to the visitors, “It was a young and beautiful tree, and look at it now,” adding later, “It’s tripled in size and tripled in strength, very much as our nations have.” The error with the flag was quickly corrected, but the moment underscored how closely watched every detail of the visit was after the planning that went into it.
For Charles, the trip delivered the full machinery of a ceremonial state welcome, despite the weather and the brief flag mishap. For the White House, it was a chance to present the visit as part of a larger celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, even if the first visual cue on the street was the wrong banner.
