King Charles Jokingly Told Trump That If It Were Not For The UK, Americans Would Be Speaking French
“Dare I say that, if it wasn't for us, you'd be speaking French."
King Charles III has jokingly told US President Donald Trump that Americans would be speaking French were it not for the UK.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Trump told European allies that without the US's intervention in World War II, "you'd be speaking German and a little Japanese."
Trump had made the comments after aggressively pushing to annex Greenland, claiming it was necessary for security purposes and used that line repeatedly to suggest Europe owes the US for its security.
On Tuesday, April 28, during Trump’s White House state dinner in Washington, D.C., Charles responded by saying, “You recently commented, Mr. President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German. Dare I say that, if it wasn't for us, you'd be speaking French."
Before the US declared independence in 1776, Britain and France were rival colonial powers fighting for control of North America.
Britain eventually won, which is why the US speaks English rather than French today.
Charles also called the dinner "a very considerable improvement on the Boston Tea Party," when American colonists dumped British tea into Boston Harbor in 1773 to protest taxation.
French president Emmanuel Macron later responded to Charles's joke, saying if the US spoke French, “That would be chic!”
Earlier the same day, Charles delivered a historic address to a joint session of the US Congress during a state visit marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.
He became the first British monarch to address Congress since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, spoke there in 1991.
King Charles and Queen Camilla’s historic tour to the US was widely seen as an opportunity for the UK to begin repairing fractured relations between the two countries after Trump publicly and repeatedly attacked British prime minister Keir Starmer for not fully backing the US war on Iran.
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