3 June 2019 | UK NEWS
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has begun his state visit to the UK this morning. Mr Trump is accompanied by the First Lady, Melania Trump.
Arriving at Stansted Airport on Air Force One, Mr Trump then immediately flew by helicopter to Winfield House in Regent’s Park. He was later welcomed to Buckingham Palace at noon, attending a private lunch with the Queen at 1:15pm.
The President spent the afternoon in Westminster, visiting Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, and dining with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. This evening, he will attend a state banquet at the Palace from 8:45pm.
While Downing Street has confirmed that Mr Trump will not hold formal one-to-one talks with outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May, it is likely that they will have spoken alone at some stage during the course of the day, perhaps when the Prime Minister offered him a tour of the Churchill War Rooms. No 10 has been keen to point out that this is not unusual for a visiting leader; indeed, the two teams held a bilateral meeting involving their own delegations. Mr Trump will meet the Prime Minister tomorrow morning at St. James’ Palace for a business breakfast.
It comes as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, wrote in The Observer on Saturday that Mr Trump represented “one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat” who threatened “our hard-won rights and freedoms”, while making reference to what he termed the rise of the “far right” across the world. In response, Mr Trump tweeted this morning that Mr Khan was a “stone cold loser”, adding that he had “done a terrible job” as Mayor of London. Their online fued dates back to 2016.
The President’s visit takes place amid protests in central London, including notably Trafalgar Square, where both the Stop Trump Coalition and Stand Up to Trump campaign groups had indicated they would be present. The Museum of London has expressed a desire to fly the Trump Baby blimp from last year as an exhibit, although it also stated that it wished to fly a similar creation depicting Sadiq Khan in a bikini.
The Mail Online is carrying a story today covering the President’s visit, replete with much photography. Elsewhere in topical political news this week, Guido Fawkes has accused the Labour MP candidate for Thursday’s by-election in Peterborough, Lisa Forbes, of being involved with anti-Zionist hate posts on Facebook.
