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Although there were some calls for King Charles III and Queen Camilla to postpone their trip to the U.S. following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner days earlier, the royal couple decided to go ahead with their trip.

The king’s longtime photographer, Arthur Edwards, wrote in The Sun that anyone “who questioned if he would go don’t know the king. He is an amazing man. He just feels duty is the most important thing, which he learned from his mother. Unless there was an actual threat on the king’s life, he was always going to go. He’s going on behalf of the nation. He’s not a politician.

“I remember in 1994, I was in Sydney, Australia, when David Kang ran from the crowd with a cat pistol. And I was just walking off, I heard the two shots ring out and heard people screaming. I ran around the front to see a pile of bodies on the stage, thinking it was [Charles]. When I tried to climb onto the stage, a policeman physically threw me off. And I look around and there’s then-Prince Charles, adjusting his cuffs, calm as can be, totally unfazed by it all.”

However, with what was believed to be an assassination attempt on the president or members of his cabinet just 48 hours before King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived, that was still at the top of a lot of people’s minds, including the POTUS. That’s according to a lip-reading expert who spoke to The Sun about what they observed Donald Trump mentioning it to the king.

Nicola Hickling is the founder of LipReader, a company specializing in lipreading and expert witness reports. Hickling has spearheaded the development of innovative technologies and services that empower individuals with hearing impairments. After the royal couple’s arrival on April 27, she picked up on some comments Trump made that the king appeared to want to talk about away from the cameras.

Hickling claimed that after welcoming the VIP guests on the South Lawn, the president turned to the monarch and said, “The shooting … ‘Are you okay? It’s not a good thing … I wasn’t prepared, but now I am prepared.”

Hickling then shared that the president appeared to say, “So right now, I am talking to Putin.” To which the king replied that they’ll “discuss this later.” The two men then shifted to discuss lighter topics.

Despite the events that occurred just days earlier, Donald Trump promised that King Charles would be “very safe” during his visit to the U.S.

During a press conference following the postponement of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department interim chief Jeff Carroll said the perpetrator was carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and several knives when he tried to charge through a security checkpoint outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel. At the time, President Trump, his cabinet officials, and members of the media were gathered inside the ballroom.

The shooter has been identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, who worked as a part-time tutor. He faces several charges, including illegally transporting firearms across state lines and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

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