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Dinner on a gold plate, then a snub: an uneven US welcome for King Charles III Posted on April 30, 2026 at 06:00:52 AM by rkm
Zohran Mamdani said he would not meet UK monarch privately, noting Indian diamond claimed by crown in 1849
In a way, it must be tough being king. One day, you’re lauded by the US president, applauded by Congress and served spring-herbed ravioli and parmesan emulsion on a golden plate.
The next, you’re essentially snubbed by the mayor of New York City, who makes it clear that a) he does not want to meet you, and b) you should return a diamond that your ancestors took from a 10-year-old Indian boy.
That’s the situation King Charles III faced in the US’s largest city on Wednesday, as the monarch arrived to attend a wreath-laying ceremony to honor 9/11 victims. The trip came a day after Charles received plaudits for his turn in Washington DC, his easy rapport with Donald Trump and well-pitched speech to Congress seen as a step towards repairing the UK-US relationship.
But while Charles may have charmed the prestige-loving Trump, gifts of gold and wisecracks about the Boston Tea Party were never likely to appeal to Zohran Mamdani, New York’s democratic socialist mayor who was elected on a promise to rein in elites, and whose father is one of the world’s experts on the effects of colonialism.
Mamdani’s eagerness to avoid Charles was clear, his team distancing themselves from the king from the moment the 9/11 ceremony, at the World Trade Center, was announced. “The mayor will not meet privately with King Charles. But the mayor will be at the wreath laying ceremony today,” Joe Calvello, the mayor’s press secretary, said in a terse statement on Wednesday morning.
It was hardly the treatment Charles is accustomed to, but as the day unfolded it seemed he may have gotten lucky by avoiding a private audience. Asked on Wednesday morning what he would say to Charles if they were to spend time together beyond the ceremony, Mamdani said: “If I was to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond.”
The 106-carat diamond, which currently sits in the crown worn by the queen mother, has been the subject of an ownership dispute since it came into the possession of Queen Victoria in 1849. Critics say the diamond, which is the size of a hen’s egg, was immorally taken from Duleep Singh, a 10-year-old maharajah whose kingdom was seized by the British.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on whether they would return the diamond.
At the World Trade Center, Charles and Camilla were accompanied by Mike Bloomberg, who was mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013, rather than Mamdani, as they toured the site’s memorial pools and laid a wreath...