Trump says King ‘agrees with me’ that Iran should never have nuclear weapon

US President Donald Trump has insisted the King agrees with him that Iran should never be allowed nuclear weapons.

The American leader made the remarks at a White House state dinner in honour of the visiting Charles and Camilla, after the two men sat down for bilateral talks earlier that day.

As head of state, the King is above party politics and remains neutral but Mr Trump’s comments are likely to cause some embarrassment to royal aides that his views have been made public.

The president said in his speech at the white-tie event on Tuesday evening: “We’re doing a little Middle East work right now… and we’re doing very well.

“We have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we’re never going to let that opponent ever, Charles agrees with me, even more than I do. We’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon.

“They know that, and they’ve known it right now, very powerfully.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey repeatedly called for the trip to be cancelled before Charles left for his four-day state visit which began on Monday, fearful of him meeting the president.

Sir Ed told the Commons earlier this month: “President Trump is one of the most unpredictable people we have seen on the world stage and I hope he does not embarrass our monarch.”

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “The King is naturally mindful of his Government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”

The President and the King have developed some sort of rapport with Mr Trump photographed touching the King’s knee during their bilateral meeting.

After the bilateral when questioned by press as he left, Mr Trump said: “It was a really good meeting. He’s a fantastic person. They’re incredible people and it’s a real honour.”

In his state dinner speech the King appeared to suggest to the president the purpose of his state visit was to put the “special back into our relationship” – just as Queen Elizabeth II did almost 70 years ago.

Charles spoke about the ties between Britain and America and implied it mirrored events in the aftermath of the 1956 Suez Crisis when Elizabeth toured the US to help repair relations.

Britain was left humiliated when America refused to support its campaign with France to regain control of the Suez Canal from Egypt and the brief conflict marked the end of the UK’s role as a global military power.

Chares told the dinner guests, who included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and golfer Rory McIlroy: “And yes, we have had our moments of difficulty even in more recent history.

“When my mother visited in 1957, not the least of her tasks was to help put the ‘special’ back into our relationship after a crisis in the Middle East.”

Some of the guests laughed when the King said: “Nearly seventy years on, it is hard to imagine anything like that happening today….”

Charles’s most diplomatically sensitive state visit to date comes amid a backdrop of criticism levelled by Mr Trump at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the war in Iran.

Relations between the two men have been fractious, with the president branding the UK’s approach to the Iran war “terrible” and repeatedly lashing out at Sir Keir – at one point describing him as “not Winston Churchill”.

A ceremonial welcome was staged for Charles and Camilla on the White House’s south lawn on Tuesday, and Mr Trump praised the “special relationship” between America and the UK, telling the King “we hope it will always remain that way” and declaring “Americans have had no closer friends than the British”.

Later that day the King made a historic address to Congress on Capitol Hill – only the second British monarch to do so after his mother Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, and the first British king.

Charles told the assembled politicians, who repeatedly clapped and rose for multiple standing ovations, that the partnership between the two nations is “more important today than it has ever been”.

On Wednesday, Charles and Camilla will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks that brought down New York’s Twin Towers, by laying flowers at the one of the memorial pools.