President Joe Biden’s visit to the United Kingdom and his meeting with King Charles III was a debacle. A confused Biden broke strict royal protocol and wandered in front of the King during a troop inspection, and later had to be told what to do by the British king.
It was an embarrassing mistake in the otherwise meticulously choreographed gathering at Windsor Castle.
After the blunder interrupted formalities, Biden and Charles participated in a climate-focused roundtable, joined by former Secretary of State John Kerry, who is currently the U.S. envoy on climate.
Biden, 80, last had formal talks with Charles, 74, then prince, at the COP26 U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. The U.S. president also attended the state funeral of Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September as well as a reception for heads of state at Buckingham Palace the night before the service. Biden did not attend Charles’s coronation, sending first lady Jill Biden instead.
WATCH: Joe Biden is so utterly confused mid senior-moment at Windsor Castle— King Charles has to physically man-handle him to dog-walk him on-stage pic.twitter.com/H7G5UYbHvw
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 10, 2023
The views of the late Queen Elizabeth II on politics and political issues were a closely guarded secret, and her meetings with world leaders were almost entirely ceremonial. Charles spent his decades as heir to the throne expressing opinions on issues from architecture to the environment, and has continued to take a keen interest in climate change now that he is king. However, neither he nor Biden spoke publicly at Windsor Castle.
Following his meetings with Charles and Sunak, Biden flew to Vilnius, Lithuania, for the annual NATO summit. Discussion about the war in Ukraine is expected to be front-and-center over two days of talks that begin Tuesday.
His talks with Charles were meant to highlight the so-called enduring “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K. When Biden declined to attend Charles’s coronation, he promised the king in a phone call that he would visit soon.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article