The state banquet is the spectacular showstopper of a state visit, a glittering feast with speeches, royal toasts, trumpet fanfares and fancy food and wine.
It’s diplomacy served up with fine dining. A cut-glass shock-and-awe approach to hospitality designed to make a visiting leader like President Trump feel special.
The setting in St George’s Hall inside Windsor Castle is a remarkable sight, a mix of medieval banquet and Harry Potter film.
Elaborately uniformed staff around the hall are as drilled as the soldiers who have been on parade during the day. The table settings, five glasses per person, are terrifyingly neat.
For Trump’s visit, the 160 guests, sitting behind 1,452 pieces of cutlery, were eating from a menu, written in French, which translates as:
- Hampshire Watercress Panna Cotta with Parmesan shortbread and quail egg salad
- Organic Norfolk chicken ballotine wrapped in courgettes with a thyme and savoury infused jus
- Vanilla ice cream bombe with Kentish raspberry sorbet interior with lightly poached Victoria plums
Guests had a generous wine list.
- Wiston Estate, Cuvée, 2016
- Domaine Bonneau de Martray, Corton-Charlemagne, Grand Cru, 2018
- Ridge Vineyards, Monte Bello, 2000
- Pol Roger, Extra Cuvée de Réserve, 1998
After-dinner drinks were drowning in symbolism. It’s a 1945 vintage port, in honour of Trump having been the 45th US president, although he does not drink alcohol.
There was a 1912 cognac, from the birth year of the president’s Scottish-born mother.
If that doesn’t seem enough there was a special cocktail, the Transatlantic Whisky Sour, which blends Johnnie Walker with the bright citrus of marmalade, with pecan foam and a toasted marshmallow on a biscuit.
President Trump’s banquet in Windsor Castle was conspicuously missing celebrity faces or screen stars. Were there people in Hollywood, or even west London, who suddenly found they had to be somewhere else tonight?
There’s not even a hardy royal perennial like Sir David Beckham or Sir Elton John.
Instead the guest list was heavy on political operators and tech bros. Apple boss Tim Cook was there, sitting next to the president’s daughter, Tiffany Trump.
Press baron Rupert Murdoch was sitting next to Sir Keir Starmer’s key adviser Morgan McSweeney. The small talk must be interesting when Trump is suing the Murdoch press for billions in the US.
Like at a wedding, guests must be checking the nameplates around the ornately-decorated table to see who they’re sitting beside.
The “head” of the table is in the middle for the Windsor state banquet, with the King and president in the centre of a dining table that is 47m long.
President Trump, as the guest of honour, was placed between King Charles and Catherine, the Princess of Wales.
The nameplate for Trump said “President of the United States of America”, although in capital letters, oddly reminiscent of his social media messages.
Facing them is the first lady, whose nameplate says “Mrs Trump”, with Queen Camilla and the Prince of Wales on either side of her.
The seating arrangement threw up some interesting groupings. There was the US ambassador Warren Stephens flanked by Princess Anne on one side and Chancellor Rachel Reeves on the other.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was beside Stephen Schwarzman, mega-wealthy CEO of the Blackstone investment group. If Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was searching for ideas, she was sitting next to Sam Altman, chief executive of the artificial intelligence firm, OpenAI.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. Among UK politicians Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy were there.
Golfer Nick Faldo and athlete Dame Katherine Grainger were among the more prominent sports stars at the banquet.
Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, was one of the tech contingent.
On the walls are royal portraits and suits of armour and the ceiling is studded with the coats of arms of Knights of the Garter.
St George’s Hall was rebuilt after the fire of 1992. So perhaps like many stories about the royals, it feels new and old at the same time.
According to the travelling US press pack, the choice of music at the banquet reflected some of President Trump’s favourites. Maybe they have their own messages to the politicians listening.
It includes Nessun Dorma, meaning “none shall sleep” and You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
