The Empty Crown: Why America Should Ignore King Charles

Initially, it was all very dapper: the tea, the crumpets, and the fanfare. They were all good and fine.

But then the King of England, King Charles III, decided to use his royal prerogative and lecture us on how to run our country, on how America ought to lead the world.

Shut the hell up.

It’s true that there are many lessons to be learned from Great Britain over the past century.

But the biggest one is this: Don’t do what they did.

King Charles is currently representing a civilization that no longer exists. He’s an empty crown, sitting atop a civilization that gave up the ghost a long time ago. There’s only one takeaway Americans should have from the King’s visit: If Great Britain has zigged, we ought to zag.

Britain is a cautionary tale. If we follow their path, we collapse the same way they have.

Charles’ visit to the United States began with Revolutionary-Era soldiers welcoming the king in the Rose Garden.

Somewhat ironic; the last king who experienced Revolutionary-era soldiers would not have been welcomed in quite this way.

As a student of American history and as a devotee of British philosophers ranging from John Locke to Edmund Burke, I love the fact that the United States is rooted in Anglican and English history. I love it. It’s great.

Charles called the bond between the United States and the UK priceless and eternal. He joked about the idea that if it were not for Great Britain, we would be speaking French, a response to President Trump saying that if it were not for us, the British would be speaking German (I assume Charles was referring to the French and Indian War, which doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense, because if the French had won the French and Indian War, it is very likely that many of the settlers would have returned to England).

But then the king decided it was time to lecture the United States. And this is the part to which I object.

It began with him talking about Christianity. He said, “For many here and for myself, the Christian faith is a firm anchor and daily inspiration that guides us not only personally.”

So far, so good, although I’m not sure why Democrats were clapping.

“Together as members of our community, having devoted a large part of my life to interfaith relationships and greater understanding,” he continued. “It is that faith in the triumph of light over darkness, which I have found confirmed countless times through it. I am inspired by the profound respect that develops as people of different faiths grow in their understanding of each other.”

There we go. This was all going to lead up to a bit of a lecture about America’s foreign policy.

As a person who is not Christian, I have tremendous admiration for Christianity and what it has done in the world. I encourage people to go to church all the time, but it turns out that if you want a robust Christianity, that Christianity cannot be based on vague principles. It has to be based on faith.

So when you hear the Brits lecturing the United States, a much more religious country, about Christianity and interfaith relations, let’s be real: Great Britain has taken religion and trodden it through the mud.

The statistics don’t lie. According to the UK’s 2022 census, 51% of people in the UK identify as having no religion, according to a 2024 British Social Attitudes Survey. A paltry 9% of the population attends a religious service once a week or more.

And as far as Anglican identity, it doesn’t exist anymore. 2.6% of people aged 16 to 34 identify with the Church of England.

Meanwhile, the tremendous increase in radical Islam in the kingdom has been overwhelming. 15% of London, at a minimum, is Muslim. A huge percentage of those people are radicalized. According to one survey conducted in 2016 by the polling exchange, 4% of British Muslims say that 9/11 was executed by al Qaeda, 7% say the Jews, and 31% say the American government.

Great Britain imported millions of people who believe this. Millions of people. This is where their interfaith nonsense has gotten them.

So, as far as being lectured on Christianity and interfaith attitudes by the Brits, the answer is no.

You know where interfaith is going in Britain. Interfaith is about tolerance for radical Islam, which is why today, the day after King Charles visited the United States, there was an attack in Golders Green, which is a very heavily Jewish part of London, in which a radical Muslim took out a kitchen knife and started stabbing people who were wearing Jewish garb.

According to UK government data, there were 15,859 total reported incidents of knife crime in London in 2025 alone. We know that Great Britain’s interfaith tolerance allowed for gigantic grooming gangs to basically run the place for years on end, out of fear that there might be a backlash to open immigration.

King Charles also took the opportunity to lecture us on climate change. We should mention that the UK has destroyed its own economy on the basis of this nonsense.

Listening to the Brits lecture us on energy production is ridiculous. Roughly 78% of the UK’s energy still comes from hydrocarbons. That would be things like oil and natural gas. The UK is constantly on the economic edge because of its extraordinary regulations and low domestic gas storage capacity. According to an article in The American Spectator, there’s a 78% tax rate on North Sea gas production and a nuclear program that’s not going to deliver energy for a decade.

The energy programs in the UK have driven them into the dirt, economically speaking.

All of this culminated in King Charles lecturing the United States on how to beat swords into plowshares rather than plowshares into swords.

I understand: King Charles represents the monarchy. Keir Starmer’s government is an appeasement-oriented, left-wing pacifist government.

In order to understand my ire here, I think you have to understand that having the British Crown come to the United States and tell us all about the old-style civilization that Britain basically surrendered in favor of welfare statism is highly irritating. 

In 1933, there was a resolution at Oxford University at their debate club, the so-called King and Country Resolution, in which the students voted, “that this House will under no circumstances fight for its king and country.” This was reflective of British sentiments; an attempt in the aftermath of the course of World War I to recede from global leadership.

You know what ended up happening? It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I was recently reading Winston Churchill’s “The Gathering Storm,” which is, of course, a classic. It is the first volume of his Second World War series. In the beginning pages of the book, Churchill explains his purpose in writing the book, saying he was writing to demonstrate “how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous, how the structure and habits of democratic states, unless they are welded into larger organisms, lacked those elements of persistence and conviction which can alone give security to a humble masses. How, even in matters of self-preservation, no policy is pursued for even 10 or 15 years at a time. We shall see how the counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger. How the middle course, adopted from desires for safety and quiet life, may be found to lead direct to the bullseye of disaster.”

He continued, “We shall see how absolute is the need of a broad path of international action, pursued by many states in common across the years, irrespective of the ebb and flow of national politics.”

Great Britain is currently telling the United States that we ought not do what we are doing in Iran. They are doing absolutely nothing to help us in the Strait of Hormuz. They are perfectly willing to allow China to maximize its global influence. Only in the case of Ukraine has Britain taken a leading role in any sort of way, and even there, it’s basically to beg us for money and armaments.

After World War II, Great Britain decided it would give up global leadership in favor of irrelevance and socialism.

No country has done as much damage to itself as Great Britain through pacifism, socialism, redistributionism, and open borders.

The Brits can’t even leave their kids money, because when you give up global leadership, free markets, private property, and skew in favor of socialist idiocy and global weakness, you become irrelevant.

You don’t get to come here and lecture us about any of this.