11 hours ago

Sean Coughlan Royal correspondent, Washington DC

Jordan Pettitt - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The US state visit takes place at a time of "very unusual" political tensions

"It's high risk, high stakes and high opportunity."

That's how a royal source describes next week's state visit by King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the United States.

There is genuine jeopardy in this US trip. It's not just a grip-and-grin photo opportunity, with some warm words and a few celebrities hitting the embassy prosecco.

"The visit comes in the biggest crisis in Anglo-American relations for a century," says Andrew Lownie, author of the best-selling biography of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

"We're dealing with a very unpredictable president," says Lownie.…