Just give us a ring: King Charles III’s gifts to Donald Trump strike a friendly chord
The original bell from a UK-made Second World War submarine named HMS Trump was the centrepiece of a set of gifts presented by King Charles III to US President Donald Trump during the State Visit this week.
The “personal gift” was unveiled at the White House state dinner on Tuesday as the 77-year-old monarch delivered his address, striking a friendly and light-hearted note to his formal speech.
Trump looked visibly impressed by the gift and praised “fantastic” Charles at the white-tie event.
“Today, our partnerships in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) and AUKUS (Australia-UK-US alliance) deepen our technological and military cooperation and ensure that, together, we can meet the challenges of an increasingly complex and contested world,” the king said in his address. “And speaking of submarine alliances, there was one particular AUKUS predecessor, launched from a UK shipyard in 1944, that served for the majority of her life attached to the 4th Submarine Squadron in Australia, playing a critical role during the war in the Pacific. Her name? HMS Trump.
“So tonight, Mr President, I am delighted to present to you – as a personal gift — the original bell which hung on the Conning Tower of your valiant namesake. May it stand as a testimony to our nations’ shared history and shining future. And should you ever need to get hold of us, well, just give us a ring,” he said, evoking laughter and applause.
The more public gift presentation followed an earlier closed-door exchange, when Buckingham Palace said the British monarch presented the American president with a framed facsimile of the 1879 design plans for the iconic desk in the Oval Office at White House – the originals of which are held by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.
“These drawings show the front elevation, top and projection of the President’s Desk, currently located in the Oval Office of the White House,” the palace stated. According to the accompanying historic details released in London, the “Resolute Desk” was created from the timbers of the British exploration ship HMS Resolute.
The US Government recovered and refitted the ship before sending it back to England where it was presented to Queen Victoria on December 17, 1856, as a “gesture of goodwill and friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom”.
HMS Resolute went on to serve in the Royal Navy until 1879, when it was decommissioned. Three desks were then made from the ship’s timber by master carpenter William Evenden, at the Royal Navy Dockyard in Chatham, Kent.
On November 23, 1880, the finished Resolute Desk was presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria.
As is customary, Queen Camilla also presented a brooch by a British designer as her royal gift to First Lady Melania Trump.
“British jewellery designer Fiona Rae has been designing and making jewellery for over 34 years. After graduating from Central Saint Martins, Fiona, a member of the British Society of Enamellers, received advice and a loan from the Prince’s Trust (now The King’s Trust) and is today one of the UK’s few enamel specialists,” Buckingham Palace stated, with reference to the brooch.
Granted the Royal Warrant by the king in 2024, Rae’s work focusses on a fusion of traditional craft skills alongside the latest developments in technology and computer-aided design. The palace also revealed details of the gifts received by the senior royals from the American president and first lady in exchange.
While Trump presented Charles with a custom facsimile of a letter written from John Adams to John Jay in 1785, Melania gifted Camilla six Tiffany’s English King Sterling Silver Teaspoons and White House Honey. On June 2, 1785, in a letter from John to John Jay, Adams describes His Majesty King George III receiving Adams as the first US Ambassador to Great Britain at St. James’ Palace in London.
