King Charles III presented President Donald Trump with the original brass conning tower bell from HMS Trump, a British World War II submarine, during a white-tie state dinner at the White House on Tuesday evening. The Admiralty-pattern bell is inscribed with the name “Trump” and the year 1944.
“Tonight, Mr. President, I am delighted to present to you as a personal gift the original bell which hung on the conning tower of your valiant namesake,” Charles said during his dinner toast. “May it stand as a testimony to our nation’s shared history and shining future.”
He followed with, “And should you ever need to get hold of us, just give us a ring.”
A Royal Visit Tied to 250 Years of Independence
The state dinner was the first white-tie event at the White House since President George W. Bush hosted Queen Elizabeth II in May 2007. Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at Joint Base Andrews on April 27 for a four-day visit timed to the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Earlier Tuesday, Charles addressed a joint meeting of Congress, emphasizing the defense partnership and Britain’s commitment to increased military spending.
Before unveiling the bell, Charles tied it to the AUKUS submarine partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. He described HMS Trump as “one particular AUKUS predecessor” that spent most of its service attached to the Royal Navy’s Fourth Submarine Squadron in Australia.
Noting the ongoing demolition of the White House East Wing, Charles joked that the British had made their own “small attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814,” when British forces set fire to the building.
Charles also gave Trump a framed replica of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk, the Oval Office desk built from timbers of the British exploration ship HMS Resolute.
Trump gave the king a replica of an 1785 letter from John Adams to John Jay describing Adams’s first audience with King George III as America’s first ambassador to Great Britain.
Queen Camilla gave the first lady a brooch by British designer Fiona Rae. The first lady gave the queen six engraved Tiffany sterling silver teaspoons and a jar of White House honey.
HMS Trump and the War in the Pacific
HMS Trump was a T-class diesel-electric submarine built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness in northern England. She was laid down on Dec. 31, 1942, launched on March 25, 1944, and commissioned that summer under the command of Cmdr. E.F. Balston, according to the Naval Historical Society of Australia.
She is the only Royal Navy vessel ever to carry the name, which has no connection to the president.
After trials and a work-up patrol in the North Sea, the submarine sailed for the Far East in January 1945. She joined the Fourth Submarine Squadron at Fremantle, Western Australia, supported by the depot ship HMS Adamant.
From Fremantle, Trump completed four war patrols off Malaya and in Southeast Asian waters before the Japanese surrender.
During those patrols, Trump sank the Japanese guard boat No. 15 Shosei Maru on May 13, 1945, a sailing vessel on May 24 and two coastal vessels on May 29 and June 1. She sank a tanker on June 5.
On Aug. 3, Trump and HMS Tiptoe attacked a Japanese convoy in the Sunda Strait in water so shallow both boats scraped the sea floor. Trump fired five torpedoes at the army cargo ship Tencho Maru but all missed. Tiptoe sank the vessel.
On Aug. 9, Trump and Tiptoe sank a Japanese vessel by gunfire north of the strait in one of the final naval actions before the surrender. In total, Trump accounted for roughly 10,000 tons of enemy shipping during the war.
A Gesture With a Precedent
Buckingham Palace described the bell as a “symbol of friendship,” drawing a parallel to a 1976 gift from Charles’s mother.
That year, Queen Elizabeth II presented the United States with the Bicentennial Bell during a visit to Philadelphia for the country’s 200th birthday. The six-ton bell was cast at London’s Whitechapel Foundry, which produced the original Liberty Bell in 1752.
After the war, Trump was rebuilt in the 1950s for improved underwater speed, with her deck gun removed and conning tower replaced by a streamlined fin. She returned to Australia in 1961 and served alongside the Royal Australian and Royal New Zealand navies.
Trump was the last Royal Navy submarine in Australia. She departed Jan. 10, 1969, when the First Australian Submarine Squadron replaced the Royal Navy’s Fourth Submarine Squadron. She was scrapped at Newport, Wales, beginning Aug. 1, 1971.
Trump called the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom “a friendship unlike any other on Earth” during his toast at the dinner. Of the bell, the president said simply, “It’s so beautiful.”
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