President Trump said Friday he liked the idea of the United States joining the British Commonwealth after a report claimed King Charles III would make an offer. 

“I love King Charles,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning while linking to an article citing a Daily Mail report that said the monarch would secretly offer the U.S. associate membership in the Commonwealth during Trump’s second state visit to Britain. “Sounds good to me!” 

Trump also reposted the same report about the king’s “secret” offer of membership late Saturday morning. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment. 

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The British Commonwealth, created in 1926, is made up of 56 countries, including Australia and Canada, most of which were originally British colonies. The monarch is the head of the Commonwealth, whose maintenance was a major priority of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Membership is voluntary. 

The U.S. was part of the British Empire before winning independence after the Revolution. 

India was the first country to decide to remain within the Commonwealth after gaining independence in 1947. 

President Trump toasting Prince Charles during his first state visit in 2019.  (Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Trump had a friendly relationship with the late queen and always spoke highly of her. 

“I got to know her very well, and, you know, I got to know her in her ’90s, OK, but she was great,” Trump told Fox News’ Mark Levin in 2023. “This is a woman … 75 years she reigned, and she never made a mistake.”

Trump has also praised Charles and the heir to the throne, Prince William, whom he met with in December in Paris, but he had fewer nice things to say about Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. 

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The president is scheduled to meet with King Charles during a rare second state visit later this year. He met with the late queen and Charles during his first state visit in 2019. 

The Daily Mail said Commonwealth membership was first floated during Trump’s first term, and this time around the hope is that it would ease tensions between the U.S. and Canada as the countries trade tariff threats. 

Trump with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles in 2019. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is being discussed at the highest levels,” a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society told the Daily Mail. “It would be a wonderful move that would symbolize Britain’s close relationship with the U.S.

“Donald Trump loves Britain and has great respect for the royal family, so we believe he would see the benefits of this. Associate membership could, hopefully, be followed by full membership, making the Commonwealth even more important as a global organization.” 

President Trump shows an invitation from King Charles III for a second state visit during a meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House Feb. 27.  (Carl Court/Getty Images)

Late last month, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer presented Trump with Charles’ invitation for a second state visit while the two politicians were meeting in the Oval Office. 

“I think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us. This is a very special letter. I think the last state visit was a tremendous success,” Starmer said. “His majesty the king wants to make this even better than that.” 

Trump posing with first lady Melania Trump and Prince Charles and wife Camilla. (Chris Jackson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump responded, “The answer is yes. On behalf of our wonderful first lady Melania and myself, the answer is yes, and we look forward to being there and honoring the king and honoring, really, your country. Your country is a fantastic country.” 

Trump described Charles as “beautiful” and a “wonderful man.” 

“I’ve gotten to know him very well actually, first term and, now, a second term,” he added. 

When Jesse Ugalde, who served in the Vietnam War, entered a Department of Veterans Affairs building Friday, he noticed a difference.

“Already, people are leaving,” Ugalde, 74, who relies on the VA for his healthcare, said of VA employees. “I was told that they’re going to try to provide services, but it’s going to take longer.”

To protest President Trump’s push to slash the size of the federal government, which includes drastic staff cuts at the VA and other agencies, Ugalde took to the streets with hundreds of others in Westwood on Saturday.

It’s “not only the VA, but there’s other programs that we need desperately,” Ugalde said. “There’s no reason to do it this way … I fought for this country, and I’ll fight for it again.”

The protesters marched toward the federal building on Wilshire Boulevard around noon, rallying against the government cuts and what they described as clear constitutional violations.

“We are here because we are not going to let Trump, we’re not going to let Elon Musk, his co-president, or anybody else take the United States Constitution down,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) told the crowd.

Musk’s advisory team, which he calls the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has fired thousands of government workers, frozen billions of dollars in federal spending and ordered the almost complete shutdown of multiple federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Education.

Musk, a billionaire known for his “move fast and break things” approach at his companies, described wasteful government spending as an urgent and existential threat in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

“The country is going bankrupt,” he said, referring to the growing national debt. “If we don’t do something about it, the ship of America is going to sink.”

But people at the protest — organized primarily by Democracy Action Network, a pro-democracy organization founded last year — said the programs on the chopping block are far from wasteful.

Angelenos and residents from throughout Southern California participate in a rally outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood on Saturday.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

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Shaun Law-Bowman, 67, spent 15 years as a public school teacher before moving into an administrative position.

“There’s no reasoning. There’s no excuse,” she said of Trump’s plan to shut down the Department of Education. “I was a special ed administrator — those are federal funds. There’s a huge amount of kids that need special help, and all that money is going to be gone. It’s just evil.”

Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that Trump and Musk’s dismantling of USAID was likely unconstitutional, arguing that the cuts were incompatible with the will of Congress.

Federal judges have also ruled that the administration’s firing of probationary employees did not follow the appropriate procedures for layoffs and that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management lacked the authority to order the firings.

The administration has bashed these rulings, with Vice President JD Vance posting on X that judges “aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

Angelenos and residents from throughout Southern California participate in a peaceful march and rally outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood on Saturday.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Many protesters spoke out against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist. Khalil, an Algerian citizen, is being held in immigration detention even though he is a green card holder with no criminal record.

Trump, without immediately providing evidence, accused Khalil of supporting Hamas, which the U.S. considers a “foreign terrorist organization.”

For many, the demonstration was a way to take matters into their own hands.

“For all those people that say the protests don’t matter … we wouldn’t have the civil rights we had in the ‘60s without protests,” said Elizabeth Gietema, 28. “Vietnam might have gone on longer without the protests.”