King Charles III arrives in Canada to underscore its sovereignty after Trump annexation threats

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Britain's King Charles III arrived Monday in Ottawa on a visit that Canada’s leader says will underscore his nation’s sovereignty amid President Donald Trump’s talk of the United States annexing its northern neighbor.

Trump’s repeated suggestion that the U.S. annex Canada prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to invite Charles to give the speech from the throne that will outline his government’s agenda for the new Parliament.

The king is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.

“This historic honor matches the weight of our times. It speaks to our enduring tradition and friendship, to the vitality of our constitutional monarchy and our distinct identity, and to the historic ties that crises only fortify,” Carney said in a statement.

“Canada’s strength lies in building a strong future while embracing its English, French, and Indigenous roots — the union of peoples that forms our bedrock.”

Carney, the new prime minister and a former head of the Bank of England, and Canada’s first Indigenous governor general, Mary Simon, the king’s representative in Canada, greeted the king and Queen Camilla at the airport. A 25-member honor guard from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, for which the king is colonel-in-chief, was also on hand.

The king, in a taupe suit and red tie, later dropped the ceremonial first puck during a street hockey game at a community event.

Spectator Norman MacDonald said he’s “proud” the king came to Ottawa to deliver a message on behalf of Canadians.

“Canada is not, obviously, for sale, and it’s not going to be bullied,” he said.

It is rare for the monarch to deliver what’s called the speech from the throne in Canada. Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, did it twice in her 70-year reign, the last time in 1977.

Canadians are largely indifferent to the monarchy, but Carney has been eager to show the differences between Canada and the United States. The king’s visit clearly underscores Canada’s sovereignty, he said.

After America gained independence from Britain, Canada remained a colony until 1867 and afterward, continued as a constitutional monarchy with a British-style parliamentary system.

“We are different,” former Quebec Premier Jean Charest said. “If you look at why King Charles is reading the speech from the throne, then you have to then acknowledge Canada’s story.”

However, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said sending messages isn’t necessary and Canadians should move on from the 51st state talk, telling the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that if there’s a message to be sent there are easier ways to do that, such as calling him or calling the president.

Royal historian Carolyn Harris expects Trump to notice the visit because he has repeatedly spoken about his admiration for the royal family. Trump might see how different Canada is from the U.S.

“It is a very distinctive history that goes back to the waves of loyalists who settled here after the American revolution,” Harris said. “And we’re going to seeing the king in a Canadian context, escorted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, surrounded by Canadian symbolism. This is very much King Charles III in his role as King of Canada.”

The speech, which will be delivered Tuesday, is not written by the king or his U.K. advisers as Charles serves as a nonpartisan head of state. He will read what is put before him by Canada’s government.

“Charles can only act with the consent and with the advice of his prime minister. But at the same time he cannot act in a way that would throw any of the other 14 Commonwealth realms under the bus. So it is the finest tightrope to walk,” said Justin Vovk, a Canadian royal historian.

Canadians were not happy when U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer extended a state visit invitation to Trump on behalf of the king during a time when Trump threatened Canada’s sovereignty.

“They weren’t impressed by that gesture, quite simply, given the circumstance,” Carney told Britain’s Sky News. “It was a time when we were quite clear ... about the issues around sovereignty.”

The king has more recently been showing support for Canada, including displaying Canadian military medals on his chest during a visit to a British aircraft carrier.

Charles will meet privately with Carney. And Camilla participated in a swearing-in ceremony to become a Canadian privy counsellor, a lifetime appointment that allows her to give advice about the country to the king.

The king will return to the U.K. after Tuesday’s speech and a visit to Canada’s National War Memorial.

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive at the Ottawa International Airport in Ottawa, Canada, for a royal visit, on Monday, May 26, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

King Charles and Queen Camilla greet school children as they arrive at the Ottawa International Airport in Ottawa, Canada, for a royal visit on Monday, May 26, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive at the Ottawa International Airport in Ottawa, Canada, for a royal visit on Monday, May 26, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

King Charles participate in a ceremonial puck drop with street hockey captains Chris Phillips, left and Desiree Scott during a visit to Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, Canada on Monday, May 26, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

King Charles looks at the puck after participating in a ceremonial puck drop during a visit to Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, Canada, on Monday, May 26, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

Britain's King Charles, left, is presented with the Key to Canada House by High Commissioner for Canada, Ralph Goodale, during a visit to Canada House to mark 100 years since it opened, at Trafalgar Square, in London, Tuesday May 20, 2025. (Arthur Edwards/Pool via AP)

Britain's King Charles, centre left, and Queen Camilla leave after visiting the Canada House Trafalgar Square, in London, Tuesday, May 20, 2025 to mark 100 years since it opened in June 1925. (Arthur Edwards/Pool via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has arrived at a delicate moment as he weighs whether to order a U.S. military response against the Iranian government as it continues a violent crackdown on protests that have left nearly 600 dead and led to the arrests of thousands across the country.

The U.S. president has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military action if his administration found the Islamic Republic was using deadly force against antigovernment protesters. It's a red line that Trump has said he believes Iran is “starting to cross” and has left him and his national security team weighing “very strong options.”

But the U.S. military — which Trump has warned Tehran is “locked and loaded” — appears, at least for the moment, to have been placed on standby mode as Trump ponders next steps, saying that Iranian officials want to have talks with the White House.

“What you’re hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately, and I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”

Hours later, Trump announced on social media that he would slap 25% tariffs on countries doing business with Tehran “effective immediately” — his first action aimed at penalizing Iran for the protest crackdown, and his latest example of using tariffs as a tool to force friends and foes on the global stage to bend to his will.

China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Brazil and Russia are among economies that do business with Tehran. The White House declined to offer further comment or details about the president’s tariff announcement.

The White House has offered scant details on Iran's outreach for talks, but Leavitt confirmed that the president's special envoy Steve Witkoff will be a key player engaging Tehran.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and key White House National Security Council officials began meeting Friday to develop a “suite of options,” from a diplomatic approach to military strikes, to present to Trump in the coming days, according to a U.S. official familiar with the internal administration deliberations. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trump told reporters Sunday evening that a “meeting is being set up” with Iranian officials but cautioned that “we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting.”

“We’re watching the situation very carefully,” Trump said.

Demonstrations in Iran continue, but analysts say it remains unclear just how long protesters will remain on the street.

An internet blackout imposed by Tehran makes it hard for protesters to understand just how widespread the demonstrations have become, said Vali Nasr, a State Department adviser during the early part of the Obama administration, and now professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.

“It makes it very difficult for news from one city or pictures from one city to incense or motivate action in another city,” Nasr said. “The protests are leaderless, they're organization-less. They are actually genuine eruptions of popular anger. And without leadership and direction and organization, such protests, not just in Iran, everywhere in the world — it’s very difficult for them to sustain themselves.”

Meanwhile, Trump is dealing with a series of other foreign policy emergencies around the globe.

It's been just over a week since the U.S. military launched a successful raid to arrest Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and remove him from power. The U.S. continues to mass an unusually large number of troops in the Caribbean Sea.

Trump is also focused on trying to get Israel and Hamas onto the second phase of a peace deal in Gaza and broker an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the nearly four-year war in Eastern Europe.

But advocates urging Trump to take strong action against Iran say this moment offers an opportunity to further diminish the theocratic government that's ruled the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

The demonstrations are the biggest Iran has seen in years — protests spurred by the collapse of Iranian currency that have morphed into a larger test of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's repressive rule.

Iran, through the country’s parliamentary speaker, has warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.

Some of Trump's hawkish allies in Washington are calling on the president not to miss the opportunity to act decisively against a vulnerable Iranian government that they argue is reeling after last summer's 12-day war with Israel and battered by U.S. strikes in June on key Iranian nuclear sites.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on social media Monday that the moment offers Trump the chance to show that he's serious about enforcing red lines. Graham alluded to former Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 setting a red line on the use of chemical weapons by Syria's Bashar Assad against his own people — only not to follow through with U.S. military action after the then-Syrian leader crossed that line the following year.

“It is not enough to say we stand with the people of Iran,” Graham said. “The only right answer here is that we act decisively to protect protesters in the street — and that we’re not Obama — proving to them we will not tolerate their slaughter without action.”

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, another close Trump ally, said the “goal of every Western leader should be to destroy the Iranian dictatorship at this moment of its vulnerability.”

“In a few weeks either the dictatorship will be gone or the Iranian people will have been defeated and suppressed and a campaign to find the ringleaders and kill them will have begun,” Gingrich said in an X post. “There is no middle ground.”

Indeed, Iranian authorities have managed to snuff out rounds of mass protests before, including the “Green Movement” following the disputed election in 2009 and the “woman, life, freedom” protests that broke out after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody of the state’s morality police in 2022.

Trump and his national security team have already begun reviewing options for potential military action and he is expected to continue talks with his team this week.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank, said “there is a fast-diminishing value to official statements by the president promising to hold the regime accountable, but then staying on the sidelines.”

Trump, Taleblu noted, has shown a desire to maintain “maximum flexibility rooted in unpredictability” as he deals with adversaries.

“But flexibility should not bleed into a policy of locking in or bailing out an anti-American regime which is on the ropes at home and has a bounty on the president’s head abroad,” he added.

Activists take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters at the White House, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)