King Charles needs to whisper one thing in Donald Trump’s ear - it’s Starmer’s last hope

King Charles III’s State Visit to the United States has come at an extremely sensitive time. The so-called “special relationship” - a phrase that Whitehall has steered away from of late, in order to not appear boastful to other allies - has encountered choppy waters, as Donald Trump openly and at will insults Sir Keir Starmer, and laments what he judges to have been Britain’s lack of assistance in attacks by US forces on Iran.

I doubt the monarch and the President will dance together, as the late Queen Elizabeth II and then-President Gerald Ford did during a bicentennial visit in 1976, but it is of great importance that the trip goes well, and the current heads of state appear happy with one another. While Charles and Queen Camilla enjoy tea parties and a White House banquet across the pond, the Prime Minister is stuck on the other side of the Atlantic, enduring another horrific week.

Foreign Office mandarin Philip Barton has been grilled by MPs over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, followed by the PM’s soft-spoken former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.

There is rumoured to be disquiet among Sir Keir’s Cabinet colleagues over his judgement, as Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham circle.

Some have joked that he could be saved by an Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands - referring to Margaret Thatcher’s emphatic victory at the 1983 general election, which they neglect to mention also involved an improvement in the economy, and an unappealing leader of the opposition in Michael Foot - after it was reported that the US could review its support for British sovereignty over the archipelago.

Lord Charles Moore, in his biography of the Iron Lady, wrote: “By the time the election was called in May, the inflation rate, which had peaked at 22 per cent in 1980, was down to 4.6 per cent, its lowest level since 1970. This was the single most important statistic for the government’s credibility.”

This enabled the Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, to put together a “boring” Budget “designed to show that the government’s policies were working”.

Lord Moore added that “it suggested that the era of emergency measures was over and that normality was returning”.

Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves are most certainly not in this situation, with inflation increasing, along with the tax burden.

Brits were also warned by the Labour leader yesterday that they may need to reconsider their holiday abroad, and supermarket stocks could be affected by the Iran war.

Besides, any sort of boost in the polls that could be provided by a conflict in the South Atlantic is not looking likely, as Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, is hoping to grab the Falklands diplomatically, rather than via another invasion.

Nevertheless, Mr Milei clearly felt emboldened last week, as he posted on X: “THE MALVINAS WERE, ARE, AND ALWAYS WILL BE ARGENTINE.”

Although unlikely, being forced into any sort of negotiations over the territory by the US would be a major blow to a PM already embattled, with YouGov reporting that 57% of Brits think the Falklands should remain a British territory.

Patrick Watts, 81, who bravely continued to broadcast from his radio studio, which was occupied by Argentine soldiers, in ‘82, told me last week that “if ever the Falkland Islands needed the support of their monarch, this is it”.

He added: “This is the time when King Charles has to step up to the plate and really tell Donald Trump who the Falklands are, who owns the Falklands and what the people's desires are. And I hope he will."

Notwithstanding his need to stay out of politics, the King has the right to advise, and should, at some point, take Mr Trump - who professes to be a friend of the soveriegn - aside and remind him that islanders want to remain British.

"A portrait of my wife and I is proudly hung on the wall of Government House in Stanley," he might say. "I would quite like it to stay there."