Royal state visits are usually predictable. And, in my view, all a total waste of time and money. Every moment is perfectly choreographed; the tableaus meticulously set up for mass appeal. The crowds turn out, cheer, wave flags and go home. No surprises, no unseemly upsets.

King Charles’s state visit to the US is unlike any other. Coming just after an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, it’s unpredictable and, possibly, unmanageable because Trump is both of those things.

Charles, we know, is testy and frightfully grand. And, according to one of his friends quoted in the Observer, he was “bouncing up and down” in fury this January after Trump suggested British troops had stayed away from the frontline in Afghanistan. He may find it hard to contain his temper for the next few days.

Furthermore, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s sordid........

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