Next year is the Semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of the Declaration of Independence. It’s a huge deal, or it would be a huge deal if we weren’t living under a fascist authoritarian regime. Incidentally, I’m watching the excellent Ken Burns’ docuseries The American Revolution, and it took the better part of four hours just to get to the declaration!! It’s amazing to see how much had to happen to get to that point in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776. It’s amazing to see just how badly King George III and Parliament f–ked up for years to basically force that moment to its crisis. It took so many years and so much propaganda for the American colonies to actually understand that King George III was their enemy. Speaking of, it’s been an open question about whether anyone in the British royal family would come to America to mark the Semiquincentennial in any way. Now the Sun claims that King Charles is making tentative plans to visit next April, rather than wait until July.

King Charles will visit the United States next April in a historic trip to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday, we can reveal. US President Donald Trump plans to host His Majesty in a lavish State visit planned for the spring — if the monarch’s health allows him to travel.

Sources in both Washington DC and London have told The Sun on Sunday that the plans being negotiated include a visit to the White House in late April. It is expected that Queen Camilla will accompany him on the trip.

Mr Trump’s administration is planning a string of events to mark the 250-year anniversary of the founding of the United States. The royal visit will be a “major moment” in the run-up to the July 4 Independence Day celebrations.

King Charles’s health will be monitored closely in the weeks leading up to the planned trans-atlantic trip. The monarch turned 77 earlier this month. He is still receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer. Buckingham Palace did not comment last night about the planned US visit to Washington.

[From The Sun]

I looked it up and QEII did visit America in July 1976, for the bicentennial. The last time the sitting British monarch visited America was in 2007, when QEII came over to mark the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement. If this trip does happen, one conversation will absolutely be “is Charles going to visit Montecito?” But we’ve got months to go on that, and there are no guarantees that Charles’s health is going to hold up. In fact, from the way people have been talking about William’s incipient reign, I’m surprised that the palace is even bothering to negotiate with the Americans about a state visit. It has the feel of both wishful thinking and busywork.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.