by Amit Roy
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump will be coming to Britain on July 12, but the state visit he was promised when prime minister Theresa May first met him at the White House in January last year has been downgraded to a “working” trip.
This means that unlike, say, the former Indian president Pratibha Patil, who was put up at Windsor Castle, he will not get to stay either at Buckingham Palace or at Windsor Castle – though he will meet the Queen at the latter venue.
Trump will stay with the US ambassador in London – which, in the circumstances, is akin to asking your honoured guest to stay in the servants’ quarter.
He will fly into Stansted airport on Air Force One, and hold talks with the prime minister, not at 10, Downing Street, but at Chequers, her country residence. He will also have dinner at Blenheim Place, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, and have an outing to his Turnberry golf course in Scotland before heading home.
Trump will be kept away from crowds, but there are real fears that the planned massive demonstrations against him will turn violent, which is why 10,000 police officers and soldiers, many armed, are being drafted in as emergency measures.
The British government is caught between wanting to protect its “special relationship” with its closest ally and showing disapproval of a president who has imposed tariffs on British steel and aluminium, torn up the nuclear agreement with Iran, walked out of the Paris climate accord, and is now threatening to impose tax on British cars.
Trump made the mistake of targeting Sadiq Khan in his tweets. Now the London mayor has signalled his support for anti-Trump demonstrations, so long as they are peaceful.
“It’s right and proper for us to be active citizens and to march and to lobby and to protest,” said Sadiq. “When people see that London – a city that loves Americans and America, where Americans have made their home – are peacefully protesting against some of the things their president is doing, I hope people notice that.”
Ghent University iStock