How Royal Family has bound our nations together

LADIES and Gentlemen, POTUS has left the country... Not quite the radio call delivered to the army of civil servants, security details and protocol officers who made this visit happen.

- By Tobias Ellwood

But there was, no doubt, a collective sigh of relief from both Team Trump and Number 10 that this epic diplomatic circus with its hundreds of moving parts landed far better than many dared hope.

The additional pomp and ceremony paid dividends for a president who thrives on flattery.

And it worked.

The visit rekindled fresh vim in that much-used phrase, "the special relationship" - too often dusted off to justify a bond forged in war, rooted in a shared commitment to defend values and norms beyond our shores.

And that bond is often judged through the prism of personal chemistry: Churchill and Roosevelt, Thatcher and Reagan, JFK and Macmillan, Blair and Bush.

There is truth in this. But with Trump, it is clearer than ever that the Royal Family has been the quiet constant binding our nations together with dignity and symbolism when politics falter.

The King now follows in his mother’s footsteps: using ceremony, symbolism and regal diplomacy to personalise national bonds and give the UK government's agenda extra weight.

Yet Donald Trump is no typical American president.