But then in Washington, it had to cope with politicians who are rarely told what to do.

There was sunglasses-wearing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introducing his daughters to King Charles III on the immaculate lawn. They explained they have exams next week.

“If you fail, it will be my fault,” said the king to laughter.

Comedian Matt Friend tried out his Charles impression on the man himself.

“Keep working on it,” said the king, displaying his famous dry wit to more roars of laughter.

And so he proceeded through the crowd, from the great neoclassical columns of the Lutyens-designed residence, to the gate in its bottom corner.

Somewhere ahead of him was Queen Camilla, shaking hands and dispensing greetings, while guests nibbled on smoked salmon sandwiches and scones. 

It was the first day of their state visit. The garden party followed tea at the White House with President Donald Trump and the first lady.

Inevitably, that meant they were late to the garden party. The bars had discreetly stopped dispensing glasses of bubbly and gin and tonic at the scheduled arrival time, but as the delay stretched to 40 minutes, they were quietly told to resume serving guests.

James Roscoe, the deputy ambassador, took up a microphone to deliver instructions for forming the corridor that would allow the king and queen to move through the garden. He asked guests to cooperate with the uniformed personnel who would create the pockets of space dotted with guests who only learned they would meet the royals when they checked in for the event.

“They are trained killers, but they are also incredibly polite,” he said of the warriors on crowd control. “So please help them construct that corridor.”

But who was going to tell Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, or Trump immigration hardliner Stephen Miller that they were standing in the wrong place?

It all made for a rather amiable scrum.

Cruz handed pollster Landon Wall his phone to take snaps of his royal encounter.

Rob Portman, the former Ohio senator, introduced himself to Secrets, and declared himself to be a reader.

American White House correspondents almost behaved themselves, but couldn’t resist lobbing a few questions at Charles as if he were some kind of mere elected head of state. “How was your meeting with the president?” asked one. The king kept moving, as if he simply had not heard.

He’s done this before, as one guest observed. Many, many times.

It was a day to avoid politics, which meant the gardens had the sort of bipartisan feel of Washington past.

When Secrets stopped to chat with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), there was his Democratic predecessor, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), standing behind us, ready with a story about how she had met Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 and her father had been at her coronation in 1953.

It was a remarkable demonstration of British soft power. A reminder that 250 years on from the American Revolution, the royal family is a potent force on this side of the Atlantic, and that the Brits have the best garden in the city.

Despite a weekend of parties for the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, this was the hottest ticket around.

“The whole of Washington is here,” said a former senior Senate staffer in disbelief, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick strolled past Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI).

The last guests were still drifting away from the garden more than five hours after they arrived, leaving behind a lawn pockmarked by heels.

So think of Head Gardener John Sonnier today. When Sonnier was asked recently about preparing the grounds for the king and queen, he said the garden was designed to be at its best all year round.

“I guess my biggest concern about the state visit is all the people in my garden,” he added.

Mike Johnson says Congress will give Charles a warm welcome

Speaker Mike Johnson said King Charles III will get a “warm welcome” when he delivers a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

“I think he’s very much looking forward to this event,” Johnson told Secrets on the steps of the British ambassador’s residence.

“It’s historic. We feel the weight of that. I believe the timing of this is providential. I think it’ll be a good unifying event for Congress, and marks our independence and emphasizes this special relationship we have with the U.K.”

It could not come at a more awkward time. Trump has railed against British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for failing to back his attacks on Iran, and the administration has even floated the idea of withdrawing its support for British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands as punishment.

Johnson said this was not a time for politics.

“This is about independence and the celebration of this common heritage in history that we have together,” he said. “I think it transcends the current events.”

The King is due to be on the Hill from about 1:30 pm onwards, followed by the state banquet in the afternoon.

READ MORE: MIKE JOHNSON SAYS KING CHARLES’S SPEECH TO CONGRESS WILL BE A ‘UNIFYING EVENT’

Don’t let her have another baby

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced Friday that she was off on maternity leave. But there she was in the briefing room yesterday.

She was asked by a reporter about coming back into work, with reference to her maternity leave twice coinciding with assassination attempts, first in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 campaign and then with Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

“It’s sort of crazy timing when you put it that way for both children … with two assassination attempts against the president.”

Lunchtime reading

Vance doubts the Pentagon’s depiction of the Iran war: This is interesting on several levels. Are the VP and his people now deliberately positioning him for a 2028 run?

Inside Trump’s judicial machine as he takes tighter control of nominations: Our Kaelan Deese reports that the president’s underlying pool of candidates still draws heavily from the same conservative legal pipeline tied to the Federalist Society, just as it did in his first term, but that he takes a closer interest in the names.