A King in Washington

I did not watch King Charles address a joint session of Congress this week. Apparently, he was funny.

I’m not particularly invested in the British. But there is something about a 77-year-old king, who buried his mother three years ago and is himself recovering from cancer, walking into the U.S. Capitol to ask a country to keep its word.

He also gifted Trump with an original brass conning tower bell from the HMS Trump, a British Royal Navy submarine from World War II. Buckingham Palace described the bell as a “symbol of friendship.” However, a handful of internet users put forward an amusing theory that the King had actually issued Trump a veiled insult. In the UK, a very common expletive is to call someone a “bell-end” — a term for a stupid, annoying, or contemptible person.

For my money, it’s possibly the most elegant royal trolling in living memory and Trump, moronic as always, loving every second of it.