The coronation of King Charles III in London, the first coronation in England in over 70 years, made history for many reasons. One of them was the American guests representing the United States at the ceremony.

Those guests were first lady Jill Biden and Finnegan Biden, daughter of the infamous Hunter Biden.

While at first, it may seem fitting for members of the first family to represent the nation at the coronation of the British king, it turns out that this appears to be a publicity stunt that breaks an American tradition dating back over a century.

For more than 100 years after the American Revolution, it wasn't really an issue. The difficulties of trans-Atlantic travel in the 19th century ruled out any presidential presence at British coronations.

Beginning with the era of steamships, however, official American attendance at a coronation in London became a matter of choice. According to the New York Post, presidents have never attended the coronation of a British monarch, but for more than 100 years, the White House has sent a carefully chosen delegation of representatives who would work for American interests, Boston University historian Arianne Chernock told the Post.

This tradition started with the coronation of George V in 1911, according to Chernock. Then-President William Howard Taft named mining magnate and diplomat John Hays Hammond as the official U.S. representative, according to The Washington Post.

In 1937, then-President Franklin Roosevelt sent retired Gen. John Pershing and diplomat James Gerard to the coronation of George VI to court Britain as an ally in a possible war with German.

In 1953, then-President Dwight Eisenhower sent Gen. Omar Bradley, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Army general, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense George Marshall to the coronation of Elizabeth II in order to solidify the good relationship built between the two nations during World War II and the countries' "special relationship" in the early years of the Cold War.

Biden, however, does not seem very interested in using the coronation as an opportunity to advance our relationship with our British allies. Instead, he seems more interested in using the event as a publicity stunt for his family.

This is nothing new for Joe Biden, given that he just came off of a visit to Ireland, which felt more like a taxpayer-funded junket for the Biden family to its ancestral homeland than a state visit.

So, needless to say, it seems as if courting the British is not near the top of Biden's priority list right now. As Chernock told the New York Post, "Joe Biden clearly hasn’t made it a high priority, as past presidents have done.”

For Biden, the coronation of Charles III is less about foreign policy and more about improving the image of the first family.

This becomes all the more apparent when one realizes that Hunter Biden's daughter accompanied the first lady on the trip. If Biden wanted to use the occasion as an exercise in diplomacy, why would he send the daughter of Hunter, a man notorious the world over for his degenerate lifestyle, to represent the administration?

Biden obviously wants to boost the image of Hunter Biden and his family in the midst of the scandals, criminal and otherwise, that are surrounding the Biden family because of him.

The thing is, the decision to send the first lady over becomes worse when one considers the state of the world right now. Russia has invaded Ukraine and China looks likely to invade Taiwan, making World War III all the more likely.

We are going to need all the allies we can get if we end up having to fight both Russia and China, and Great Britain will once again be an important ally in that fight.

Wouldn't it be wiser for Biden to follow the example of his predecessors by sending serious emissaries, from the military and diplomatic worlds, to court the British as potential allies in World War III were to break out?

This decision was really just baffling. But then again, this is the Biden administration.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.