AILSA CHANG, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Ailsa Chang in Culver City, California.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And I'm Mary Louise Kelly in central London, on Regent Street. We have just landed. We are here to cover President Trump's visit to Britain this week. There are all kinds of security preparations underway for that, also all kinds of policy preparations for the talks he'll be holding and all kinds of royal protocol preparations. The king will be hosting President Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Windsor Castle. There's a big state banquet and all sorts of other pomp and circumstance in the works.
We have invited Jack Royston to stop by our London bureau. He's chief royal correspondent for Newsweek. Welcome. Nice to see you.
JACK ROYSTON: Thank you for having me on.
KELLY: So this is an unprecedented second state visit for an American president to the United Kingdom. And I know that there are some differences from his last state visit. One of them has to do with carriage...
ROYSTON: Yes.
KELLY: ...That he'll be getting one. Explain.
ROYSTON: Yeah, so this is the - probably the biggest procedural difference. But yes, so actually, when - during the first state visit, unlike many other world leaders, Trump did not get a carriage procession for the simple reason that it was a security issue. And if you drive carriages through the middle of central London, there are numerous places that overlook the route where you could have, you know, snipers shooting down or...
KELLY: All kinds of windows. All kind - yeah.
ROYSTON: All kinds of windows. So what they've done is, this time round, it's in Windsor. It's a totally different ballgame. You know, they're not going through the streets of central London. They're not going to be as overlooked. So that is something that I think Trump will really value. The other massive difference this time is that Queen Elizabeth II is no longer with us, so...
KELLY: Yes. It's His Majesty who will be...
ROYSTON: It is His Majesty, exactly.
KELLY: ...Who will be greeting the president and first lady.
ROYSTON: Yeah.
KELLY: How does that impact royal etiquette in terms of who sits where or who walks where or - does it change things?
ROYSTON: I don't think it changes the etiquette hugely, except for the fact that it will be a very different experience for Trump. There'll be a fairly low-key welcome on the Tuesday that doesn't involve any royals, and then Trump will - that'll be Tuesday night. Trump and Melania will come to Windsor on Wednesday morning, and they'll be welcomed by William and Kate.
KELLY: Yeah. OK, so I...
ROYSTON: And that's a massive role.
KELLY: ...So let me - I'm just going to take that ball and run with it because I will not pretend to be uninterested in...
ROYSTON: Of course.
KELLY: ...What Princess Kate is likely to wear. Are we...
ROYSTON: Absolutely.
KELLY: ...Talking tiaras? Like, where does this go? (ph)
ROYSTON: For the state - assuming that she does make the state banquet, that is tiara territory. Yeah. You can only - you only wear tiaras in the evening, so she's not...
KELLY: Really?
ROYSTON: Yes. So she's not going to be wearing...
KELLY: What happens if you wear one in the daytime?
ROYSTON: The sky falls in.
(LAUGHTER)
ROYSTON: The four horsemen of the apocalypse ride through Windsor. (Laughter) No, you just don't. It's not done. It's not the protocol. It's not the rules. You know, part of the point - you know, in some ways, the whole point - of this stuff is the tradition. You're also - for what it's worth, you can't wear a tiara unless you're married, so it's...
KELLY: I didn't know any of this.
ROYSTON: Yeah.
KELLY: I've been wearing my tiaras all wrong.
ROYSTON: (Laughter).
KELLY: It's embarrassing.
ROYSTON: But you should - you can wear a tiara whenever you want 'cause you're American.
KELLY: Well, I wanted to ask because the palace has home court advantage, pun intended.
ROYSTON: Right.
KELLY: They...
ROYSTON: Yeah.
KELLY: Which, I would imagine, gives some leverage on some of the serious, substantive things that the king might want to get to - things like trade, things like climate - that he is known to care about.
ROYSTON: Up to a point, but this is very dangerous waters for Charles. And so he might actually want to steer clear of some of those thorny subjects because Trump is a real wild card, that anything Charles says to him, he could repeat at a press conference, he could repeat to journalists. You know, there could be a huddle on the tarmac at the end of the tour, and Trump could start, you know, waxing lyrical about everything Charles said to him over dinner.
KELLY: Etiquette faux pas for an American president to avoid. I'm - am I right in remembering there was a minor etiquette kerfuffle when President Trump stepped in front of then-Queen Elizabeth?
ROYSTON: Yes. Actually, you know, these things, actually, you know, the royals never care. And it's very tempting to think that it's all about how the president goes into this very old institution and survives the system of rules. But actually, the royals, just as much as the U.S. president, are going to be going in wanting a successful operation, basically. You know, this is Operation Warm Up Trump so that Keir Starmer and, you know, the...
KELLY: The prime minister.
ROYSTON: ...The prime minister, the British political class can then do their magic. The role of the royal family is to give Trump a - show him a good time, basically - warm him up, get him ready for the lobbying effort that's going to come next. And from that point of view, they want as much as he does for it to go well.
KELLY: Jack Royston, thank you.
ROYSTON: Thank you very much.
KELLY: He is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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