U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump meet with Britain's Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, in London, on June 3, 2019.TOBY MELVILLE/Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain has gotten off to a controversial start and officials are bracing for Tuesday when tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on central London for an anti-Trump march.
Mr. Trump began his three-day visit with a Twitter tirade against London Mayor Sadiq Khan. In a series of tweets sent as Air Force One was about to land, Mr. Trump called the mayor a “stone cold loser” who “by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London.” He added that: “Kahn [sic] reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, [Bill] de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height.”
The President and Mr. Khan have had a long-running feud and over the weekend the mayor fuelled the animosity by writing in a newspaper article that Mr. Trump was part of a growing global threat which used “the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support, but with new sinister methods to deliver their message.” Mr. Khan kept up the attack on Monday with a video denouncing Mr. Trump; “President Trump, if you are watching this, your values, and what you stand for, are the opposite of London’s values and the values of this country.”
The nasty exchanges came against a backdrop of high formality and regal pageantry as members of the Royal Family rolled out the red carpet for Mr. Trump, the first lady and their family. The Queen received them for a lunch and planned a state dinner at Buckingham Palace Monday evening while Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, welcomed the Trumps to Clarence House for tea.
The Queen also gave Mr. Trump and his family a private tour of some of her art collection. Mr. Trump also visited Westminster Abbey to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and on Wednesday he will join the Queen and other dignitaries in Portsmouth for a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
The President didn’t mingle with the public and crowds were kept away from the Trumps as they travelled around the city largely by helicopter. London is not a particularly welcoming place for Mr. Trump and one recent opinion poll found that just 9 per cent of Londoners believe he has done a good or great job as president. Mr. Trump largely avoided the city last July during a working visit to Britain and British officials scrapped plans for a carriage ride down The Mall as part of this state visit.
That didn’t stop some Trump supporters from gathering outside of Buckingham Palace on Monday to catch a glimpse of their hero. “I love him,” said Amy Dallamura, an American and British citizen who voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and is convinced he’ll win re-election next year. “He’s a miracle worker. He’s created six million jobs, the [gross domestic product] is growing at over 3 per cent, the unemployment rate is at its lowest in history.”
Not everyone was thrilled to see Mr. Trump. “I’m against his ideology,” said Hada Morena as she arrived at the palace with a sign that read; “Love the good American people. Hate Trumpism.” Ms. Morena said, “Trumpism is a very dangerous ideology that is spreading around the globe. Everything that he stands for is against our British values of democracy, freedom, tolerance, equality and respect to other religions.”
For the most part, though, the crowds remained small and largely quiet as Mr. Trump and his family moved around the city. That won’t be the case on Tuesday when a march is planned from Trafalgar Square to Westminster to protest the President’s visit.
Mr. Trump will meet Prime Minister Theresa May at No. 10 Downing St. on Tuesday for what could be an awkward exchange. Ms. May is stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party on Friday and the race to succeed her has already begun with the winner expected to take over as prime minister in July. Ms. May has been forced out by her Tory caucus largely because she couldn’t deliver on Brexit and get the country out of the European Union by the March 29, 2019, deadline. That deadline has now been extended to Oct. 31.
Mr. Trump has been critical of Ms. May’s Brexit strategy and in an interview last week, Mr. Trump praised former foreign secretary Boris Johnson and said he would be an excellent prime minister.
Paul Waldie