Windsor Castle staff are setting the 50-metre-long mahogany table. Grooms are buffing the hooves of the horses that will pull the royal carriages.

And the military honour guard is drilling to ensure every step lands with precision.

Throughout the halls and grounds of the almost 1000-year-old castle west of London, hundreds of people are working to make sure King Charles puts on the best show possible when he welcomes US President Donald Trump for his historic second state visit this week.

The visit, featuring glittering tiaras, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet served on 200-year-old silver, is a display of the pomp and ceremony that Britain does like no one else.

But it's a spectacle with a purpose: to bolster ties with one of the world's most powerful men at a time when his America

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