Trump accepts Queen's invitation to make state visit to Britain in June

US President Donald Trump and Britain's Queen Elizabeth inspects the Guard of Honour at Windsor Castle in 2018. File picture: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

US President Donald Trump and Britain's Queen Elizabeth inspects the Guard of Honour at Windsor Castle in 2018. File picture: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Published Apr 23, 2019

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London - US President Donald Trump

will make a state visit to the United Kingdom in June,

Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday, a trip Britain hopes

will cement transatlantic relations but one that immediately

prompted criticism and promises of protests.

Trump will be only the third US president to have been

accorded the honour of a state visit by Queen Elizabeth during

her 67-year reign. But the trip, from June 3-5, is likely to be

controversial given many Britons deeply dislike the man and

reject his policies on issues such as immigration.

Almost 1.9 Britons signed a petition in 2017 saying he

should not be given a state visit - a pomp-laden affair

involving a carriage trip through London and a banquet at

Buckingham Palace. Protests involving tens of thousands of

demonstrators overshadowed his non-state trip to Britain last

July.

The opposition Labour Party strongly criticised Prime

Minister Theresa May for pressing ahead with the ceremonial

stay, which she offered Trump when she became the first foreign

leader to visit him after his inauguration in January 2017.

May, who is facing calls for her resignation from some

lawmakers in her own Conservative Party over her handling of the

country's exit from the European Union, which is still stalled,

will be hoping for strong backing for a post-Brexit U.S.-UK

trade deal.

"The UK and United States have a deep and enduring

partnership that is rooted in our common history and shared

interests," May said in a statement.

The state visit would be an opportunity to strengthen

already close ties in areas such as trade, investment, security

and defence, she said.

The White House said the trip would reaffirm "the steadfast

and special relationship" between the allies.

During his trip last year, Trump shocked Britain's political

establishment by giving a withering assessment of May's Brexit

strategy. He said she had failed to follow his advice such as

suing the EU but later said May was doing a fantastic job.

"This is a President who has systematically assaulted all

the shared values that unite our two countries," Emily

Thornberry, Labour's foreign affairs spokeswoman, said in a

statement after the visit was announced.

"Unless Theresa May is finally going to stand up to him and

object to that behaviour, she has no business wasting taxpayers’

money on all the pomp, ceremony and policing costs that will

come with this visit.”

Few details of the trip were given, but it will include a

meeting with May in Downing Street and also a ceremony in

Portsmouth on the south English coast to mark the 75th

anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France during

World War Two. Trump will be accompanied by his wife, Melania.

TEA AND PROTESTS

Last year, Trump was feted with a lavish dinner at Blenheim

Palace, the birthplace of the British World War Two leader

Winston Churchill, and he and Melania also had tea with the

queen at Windsor Castle.

The president then breached royal protocol by publicly

disclosing details of a conversation he had with the 93-year-old

monarch about the complexities of Brexit.

Trump's state visit has been a divisive issue for Britons

since May issued the invitation, with 1.86 million people

signing a petition calling for him to be prevented from making

such a trip, leading to a debate in parliament in 2017.

More than 100 protests were planned across the country

during his visit last year and police had to deploy 10,000

officers, an operation that cost nearly 18 million pounds.

The largest protest in London attracted some 250,000

people, according to organisers, bringing much of the capital to

a standstill.

They promised a "Together Against Trump" protest in June.

"He is a symbol of the new far right, a politics of

Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, of war and conflict, and walls

and fences that are growing around the world," said Shaista

Aziz, from the Stop Trump coalition.

The queen, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has met

every US leader since Harry S. Truman except for Lyndon

Johnson. Only two U.S. presidents - Barack Obama in 2011 and

George W. Bush in 2003 - have previously been invited for full

state visits.

After leaving Britain, Trump will travel to France to meet

French President Emmanuel Macron, the White House said. 

Reuters

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