King Charles and Queen Camilla were back in the DMV on Thursday, after spending all of Wednesday in New York. They attended some kind of party in Virginia – and met VA’s Democratic governor Abigail Spanberger – and Charles visited the Shenandoah National Park while Camilla visited a horse ranch. At some point, they dropped by the White House for a formal goodbye with Donald and Melania Trump, which are the photos in this post. Note the drip for Charles and Camilla – Charles wore his full medal collection, while Camilla wore a brooch from Tiffany & Co. Cam’s brooch was actually a gift from the Trumps, given to her last year.

When Buckingham Palace formally announced the state visit a few weeks ago, they also announced that Charles and Camilla would tack on a trip to Bermuda following their four days in the US. Well… Camilla decided she had enough. She flew back to the UK after the US leg of the trip, and Charles is already in Bermuda, looking perky. Interesting, innit?? While Charles looked dead-tired on the second day of the US state visit, he’s perked up considerably in the last half of the week. Which leads me into this Royalist Substack piece, “Four Days In, How Come Charles Still Looks So Fresh?”

So, King Charles has left the United States after his four-day state visit, looking every bit as fresh as he looked when he arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Monday. That’s four days of making speeches, shaking hands, and generally being royal. The 77-year-old will be donning his Bermuda shorts now for his first trip as monarch to an overseas British territory.

His secret? Apart, of course, from the sheer joy of being in Washington and New York in the spring sunshine and getting the chance to hang out with Donald and Melania Trump?

It seems like an experimental cancer-fighting cocktail has worked wonders.

I don’t know the precise details, but as Tom Sykes revealed on the latest Daily Beast Podcast, Charles has been receiving treatment with an immunotherapy-RNA combination for the cancer he’s been battling for the last couple of years. I think that means some kind of checkpoint-inhibitor immunotherapy treatment combined with an RNA-based cancer vaccine, delivered in a weekly injection, although y’all can Google as well as I can.

Tom said: “I have been told, by someone who knows, that they are incredibly impressed at how the treatment has worked, and there is now a great deal of optimism—amongst the Palace, amongst his family, amongst his circle—that the king can carry on for many, many years hence.

“And, of course, when people talk about this, they always say it with the proviso ‘But, of course, with cancer things can change very, very quickly.’ But I think there’s no denying that there is a massive sense of optimism now that maybe we have come through what looked like an existential storm.”

In public appearances over the past couple of years, Charles has put on a good show. Of course he has; he learned from the best in the business. But there’s no denying that he’s looked exhausted at times, like any cancer patient in his seventies would.

On this week’s evidence, however, he is back. His looked like it might be a short reign, tacked on almost as an afterthought to his mother’s, but that’s no longer the case. And the interesting thing is how that changes the dynamic in the familial psychodrama that is the Windsors. Welcome back!

[From The Royalist Substack]

While I’m loath to give Tom Sykes credit for any insider knowledge, this would make sense. We’ve heard rumors for two years now that Charles isn’t going through traditional chemotherapy, and we’ve also heard rumors that Charles wanted a more experimental therapy. Since the pandemic, we’ve heard a lot about the advances in RNA-based cancer treatments as well. I also think a lot of the pro-William royalists have been thrown for a loop because William has been rage-briefing about how “he’ll be king soon” and now it’s looking like Charles will live into his 80s (at the very least).

One final indignity for the king and queen – an upside-down Union Jack when they visited Arlington.

🇬🇧🇺🇸 Rather a diplomatic gaff by the Americans here.
The Union flag is upside down at the Arlington Cemetery event. pic.twitter.com/OyPCJy1Ot2

— Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) April 30, 2026

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.