For the British, the difference between state visits and plain old official visits is far more than semantics.

By convention, the full pomp and pageantry of a royal welcome — the guard of honor, the cavalry band, the palace’s finest silverware — is strictly for the former, making it one of British diplomacy’s most powerful tools. And, until now, state visits were bound by another unwritten rule: second-term US presidents don’t get them.

When Barack Obama visited Windsor Castle in 2016, he and Michelle traveled in a plain black Range Rover, greeted by only a handful of royal guards ahead of a private lunch with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Eight years earlier, his predecessor, George W. Bush, made do with afternoon tea and a quick palace tour. But neither of them valued regal

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