Sky News' usual programming was interrupted for major breaking news about King Charles' upcoming visit to the United States, as US President Donald Trump confirmed the King was still coming. The Royal and his wife Queen Camilla were expected to be welcomed by US President Donald Trump for the four-day stay to heal the transatlantic rift, but their plans were left uncertain after shots were fired during a White House Correspondents' dinner. The annual black-tie event descended into chaos as Trump and Melania were escorted out of the premises while other guests, including US officials, scrambled and ducked under tables for cover.
In the fresh report, presenter Saima Mohsin revealed: "In the last few minutes, Fox News says it's been speaking to President Donald Trump has said that King Charles is coming to the US. "So Donald Trump speaking to Fox News says King Charles is coming to the US, and that's significant in the context that we received a statement earlier from Buckingham Palace saying it's looking at whether the incident could impact the King's planned state visit to the US."
Saima continued: "So, according to Donald Trump, according to Fox News, it is going ahead. But clearly, there will be things that they will want to review security-wise."
The presenter was then joined by Scott Hamer, a former New Scotland Yard officer who served as the King's personal protection officer when he was Prince of Wales, and asked: "What will the King's security team be doing right now?"
He responded: "Well, they'll be doing what they do every day of the week. They'll be making sure that the security is commensurate with the threats and the risks for this visit. That's business as usual as far as the protection team is concerned.
The TV star probed: "So does that mean, given the context, is there more security? Do we think there'll be more people around him? What kind of reviews might be going on, given that there has been a shooting incident?
"You're correct, obviously. In light of the recent circumstances, there will be a review," Scott detailed, "But protection is constantly reviewed at every stage."
The guest shared: "It's to the American authorities to provide protection to the visitor, to the King, and that will be supported in a collaborative way with the Metropolitan Police's Royalty and Specialist Protection Department."
Saima questioned: "And so what are those procedures? Because obviously there'll be the King's Close Protection Unit. There's a lot of different moving parts involved, aren't there, particularly with an international state visit. Give us and our viewers an insight into how that works and who coordinates with whom.
Refusing to share intricate insight, Scott added: "I'm not going to go into tactical details because that would be very wrong, but I don't think it's any secret that security will be a mixture of people security, both from the US, who will be providing the vast majority of that, and the UK, and also technical security as well.
"And from the incident yesterday, any security regime has layers, that we could liken to an onion, and it would appear that this chap was thwarted at the very first layer, which is what a layered security approach is designed to do."