In a show of tradition and diplomatic goodwill, President Donald Trump and King Charles III exchanged symbolic gifts on Tuesday during the British monarch’s state visit.
King Charles gave Trump a historically significant, high-quality reproduction of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk, which sits in the Oval Office. The 1,300-pound desk was crafted from salvaged timbers from the British ship H.M.S. Resolute, as The New York Times reported. The original design plans are housed at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
In return, Trump gifted the British Monarch a framed copy of a 1785 letter from then-U.S. ambassador to Britain John Adams to John Jay, who was serving as U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Adams, who would later become the nation’s second president, described in the letter a meeting with King George III in which both sides agreed to move forward amicably despite lingering bad feelings from the Revolutionary War.
The exchange was widely seen as a symbolic nod to the enduring relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.
First lady Melania Trump and Queen Camilla also exchanged gifts. Melania Trump presented the queen with a set of six engraved silver spoons from Tiffany & Co., while Queen Camilla gifted the first lady a designer brooch.
It was also revealed this week that Trump and King Charles share a distant familial connection, as The Daily Wire previously reported. Research cited by The Daily Mail traces both men’s lineage back to the 3rd Earl of Lennox, a great-grandson of King James II of Scotland, making them 15th cousins.
The official White House X account highlighted the discovery, sharing a chart tracing back the ancestry research along with a screenshot of Trump’s reaction on Truth Social: “Wow, that’s nice. I always wanted to live in Buckingham Palace!!! I’ll talk to the King and Queen about this in a few minutes!!!”
King Charles and Queen Camilla are visiting the United States as the country approaches the 250th anniversary of its independence from Britain, a milestone both sides are marking as a sign of the continued strength of the transatlantic alliance. The royal couple arrived in the United States on Monday and is scheduled to visit Washington, D.C., New York, and Virginia.
