Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK
Trumps to stay at ambassador’s residence
The Trumps will spend the next few hours at Winfield House, the US Ambassador’s official residence in Regent’s Park, central London, where they will stay during their state visit.
The couple would normally stay at Buckingham Palace on a state visit, but renovations to the building mean the Queen is unable to put her guests up for the night.
Temporary fences have been built around the Ambassador’s residence in the public park ahead of the trip, and several media tents have been set up near by.
After settling in on Monday morning, Trump and his wife Melania will head to Buckingham Palace for a lunchtime reception.
The first day of the tour will be a royal affair throughout. The pair will have lunch with the Queen, tea with Prince Charles and enjoy a state banquet in the evening.
On Tuesday the trip will get more political, as Trump sits down with the outgoing UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, in Downing Street.
Trump steps off Air Force One
Donald Trump has emerged from Air Force One after his overnight flight into London.
He walked down the plane’s steps alongside first lady Melania Trump, before being greeted by Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK, and Jeremy Hunt, the UK Foreign Secretary.
Trump, saluting as he walked, has now boarded a Marine One helicopter to travel to London.
BREAKING: Trump lands in UK
Donald Trump has landed at Stansted Airport, just north of London, aboard Air Force One.
Minutes before he touched down, Trump tweeted out an attack against London mayor Sadiq Khan.
He’ll now be welcomed at the airport before heading into London to meet the Queen.
Trump attacks London mayor minutes before landing
Minutes before landing at Stansted Airport just outside London, Donald Trump has attacked the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan — a prominent Trump critic — as a “loser.”
Trump said the mayor, with whom he has feuded on several occasions, has done a “terrible job.”
“Kahn (sic) reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height,” Trump added.
On Sunday, Khan wrote an explosive opinion piece attacking the decision to allow Khan on a state visit.
London mayor slams ‘divisive’ Trump ahead of visit
London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has attacked as “un-British” the decision to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump’s UK visit.
Khan, who has clashed with Trump on a number of occasions, called the president “one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat” in an explosive opinion piece in the Observer newspaper on Sunday.
“America is like a best friend, and with a best friend you have a responsibility to be direct and honest when you believe they are making a mistake,” Khan wrote, adding that Trump’s “divisive behaviour flies in the face of the ideals America was founded upon – equality, liberty and religious freedom.”
Khan and Trump have been critics of each other for some time, and their disagreements intensified after Trump attacked Khan in the aftermath of a terror attack on London in 2017.
“This is a man who tried to exploit Londoners’ fears following a horrific terrorist attack on our city, amplified the tweets of a British far-right racist group, (and) denounced as fake news robust scientific evidence warning of the dangers of climate change,” Khan wrote in the piece.
“In years to come, I suspect this state visit will be one we look back on with profound regret and acknowledge that we were on the wrong side of history,” he concluded.
Ivanka’s already in town
Donald Trump is yet to touch down in London for his state visit, but his daughter Ivanka appears to have made it across the pond already.
She posted an image on Instagram on Sunday afternoon outside the city’s Victoria and Albert Museum, one of the world’s largest arts and design museums.
Trump seeks to take advantage of Britain’s political chaos
President Donald Trump normally is a chaos maker when he travels abroad. But he will attempt to use his pomp-laden state visit to Britain this week to wring strategic advantage out of another country’s already raging political meltdown.
Trump arrives in London Monday with the United Kingdom threatening to tear itself apart amid its worst crisis since World War II over the divisive vote to leave the European Union.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May is the lamest of lame ducks, and will just cling on long enough until Friday to call a Conservative Party election to find her replacement in 10 Downing Street.
The prospect of fracturing ties with Europe means the royal pageantry Britain will lay on for Trump is about more than hospitality. The “special relationship” is increasingly vital for the UK government.
The hope is that Trump, whose addiction to adulation means he’s susceptible to pageantry, will favor the land of his Scottish mother’s birth — when Britain seeks a free trade deal with the US if it finally works out how to leave the EU.
Trump may also be looking to forge a closer bond with the next prime minister than the cordial, yet occasionally awkward relationship he maintained with May.
This isn’t President Trump’s first time in the UK — but it is his first state visit
President Trump’s trip this week to the United Kingdom marks his first official state visit to the country.
The visit will involve the full trappings of a state occasion.
What about last summer? Trump’s last visit to the UK, in July 2018, was styled as a working visit. (It nevertheless prompted huge protests in central London.)
Trump’s on his way to the UK. Here’s what to expect today.
After he lands in the UK, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will be officially welcomed at Buckingham Palace in London by Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Trump will receive a Ceremonial Welcome in the palace garden, and then inspect a guard of honor, made up of Nijmegen Company Grenadier Guards, with Charles. Meanwhile, royal gun salutes will be fired in nearby Green Park, and at the Tower of London.
The Queen will then host a private lunch for her guests before inviting them to view a specially curated exhibition at the Picture Gallery. The display will be comprised of items from the Royal Collection of historical importance to the United States.
In the afternoon, the Trumps alongside Andrew, Duke Of York, will head to Westminster Abbey to lay a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior and take a tour of the World Heritage site.
Later, the Trumps will join Charles and Camilla for tea at their residence at Clarence House.
The first day will culminate in a lavish state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
