As President Biden takes flak both at home and across the pond for his decision to sit out the coronation of King Charles this weekend, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher says the British public has soured on the embattled American leader who promised European allies, “The U.S. is back.”

“Certainly the British press, I think, have turned very strongly against Biden,” said Nile Gardiner, who served as an adviser to Britain’s transformative Conservative prime minister. “There’s been a lot of condemnation in the U.K. of Biden’s decision not to attend. I would say he’s becoming a very unpopular president in the eyes of the British public. I think this is just the latest snub of America’s closest friend and ally.”

King Charles III is to be officially crowned king on May 6. It will be the first crowning of a monarch in Great Britain since 1953.

[They’re probably also horrified at the potential for ghastly inappropriate garb from DOCTOR Jill. ~ Beege]