What King Charles and Queen Camilla Can Expect at Upcoming White House State Dinner, According to an Etiquette Expert

Simon PerryFri, April 3, 2026 at 4:35 PM UTC

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King Charles, Queen Camilla and President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania, Windsor, Sept. 2025Credit: Aaron Chown - WPA Pool/Getty -

King Charles and Queen Camilla can expect a few differences from U.K. state banquets when they dine at the White House during their upcoming visit to the U.S.

Etiquette expert William Hanson tells PEOPLE that the occasion likely won't be as formal as the recent U.S. state banquet at Windsor Castle

The table set-up will also be different, thanks to Jacqueline Kennedy

When King Charles and Queen Camilla sit down with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the White House later in April, things will feel very different from the historic settings of Windsor Castle.

Trump visited the U.K. twice for state visits, the first in June 2019 and hosted by Queen Elizabeth, and again during his second term in September 2025, after King Charles acceded the throne. Now, King Charles and Queen Camilla will make their first state visit to the United States this month, where they'll be the ones feted.

Social etiquette coach William Hanson, who has worked with six royal households and built an international reputation as an authority on protocol and decorum, has described state visits as “a form of theater,” with each stage rehearsed and the product of decades of well-practiced protocol.

He says King Charles and Queen Camilla’s upcoming trip will follow a similar pattern to other visits and to that of the British-hosted occasions, with an official welcome, a lunch, a presentation of gifts and a state dinner.

He adds, “State entertaining is not particularly innovative. There’s a belief we did it once like this and it worked, so why change it?”

Although the schedule for the four days in the U.S. has not been announced, the president did say that a dinner was on the agenda. Shortly after Buckingham Palace confirmed the visit, saying on March 31, that the program "will celebrate the historic connections and the modern bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, marking the 250th anniversary of American Independence," President Donald Trump made his own statement.

In it, he shared that the King and Queen will visit from April 27 to 30, with a state dinner at the White House on April 28. "I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect," Trump said.

President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush with Charles and Camilla in 2005Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty

The dinner, Hanson tells PEOPLE, “will follow the tradition of all other American state entertaining. So, it won’t be white tie, but black tie,” setting it apart from when the royals hosted the Trumps in September 2025 at Windsor Castle.

However, Hanson adds, “The last time the Americans did white tie was when President George W. Bush entertained the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. It will be more casual. It will be very formal for most people but more casual than a British one," referring to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's 2007 state visit to the U.S.

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He predicts “there will be more celebrities there.”

Dinner will be served to guests seated around "round tables as opposed to one long table like at Windsor. It will look and feel a bit different,” Hanson says.

The shape of tables changed with Jacqueline Kennedy. The thinking was that those tables “are more sociable,” but it also means a change to the place setting. “In Britain, we might have table settings that have nine pieces of cutlery on each side of the plate, measured in line with a ruler, and if you have straight-edged tables, that is going to stay there,” Hanson told PEOPLE in 2025. “But if you have round tables, the cutlery is going to fall off the table.”

Etiquette expert William HansonCredit: Spencer McPherson

For King Charles, who is attending both at the invitation of the Trumps but also at the request of the British government, it is a delicate diplomatic operation.

“The point of the state visit is to forge relations, and the King is very personable and is a good conversationalist and has a good sense of humor,” Hanson tells PEOPLE. “He is an interesting person to speak to — not that his mother wasn’t. But the King is arguably more relaxed and is a people person and is interested in other people, which you have to be in order to do his job.”

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William Hanson advises on etiquette and mannersCredit: Spencer McPherson

Despite ongoing tensions and disagreements between Trump and the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the Iran conflict, Trump talks fondly of King Charles.

“They are similar ages. They have something in common," Hanson notes. "If Trump likes him, that’s a big asset to Britain.”

It is King Charles' first state visit to the U.S. His mother undertook four state visits to the U.S. in 1957, 1976, 1991 and 2007. As Prince of Wales, Charles has traveled to stateside 19 times, including with Camilla on what was their first foreign tour as husband and wife in 2005.

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