Will King Charles’ visit help soften the animus between the U.S. and the UK?

King Charles III is Donald Trump’s opposite in every way. The former is a master of protocol: Everything he does daily is scripted to a T. The latter despises a script, hates giving formal speeches and prefers to ad-lib in front of his supporters. Due to his bloodline and the role of the monarchy in British life, Charles rises above the fray of Britain’s increasingly bitter politics. Trump, meanwhile, relishes partisanship and uses it to his advantage.

This week, the unlikely pair are meeting for a second time in less than a year while Charles is in Washington for a multiday state visit. His itinerary includes the usual goings-on for a head of state—a symbolic speech to Congress one day and a visit to chat with 9/11 families in New York the next. Pomp and circumstance will be on full display as one might expect. Even so, the monarch will have some work to do on this side of the pond. Job No. 1: Use the gravitas of the British royal family to chip away at the animus that has bedeviled the U.S.-United Kingdom relationship since the beginning of the year.

Although it would be an exaggeration to say that the so-called special relationship is falling apart, ties between the kingdom and its former colony are certainly at a low ebb. The U.S. and U.K. have clashed over everything from energy policy and trade to NATO and the status of Greenland, the large ice-covered Danish territory that Trump at one point threatened to seize by force. Trump, who has immense respect for the royals but very little for the British politicians actually running the country, has taken a liking to lumping the U.K. in with “woke” European states that have, in his view, turned a once-great continent into a hellscape overrun by migrants, crime and windmills.