President Donald Trump will meet the Queen and go to Chequers when he visits Britain in later this year, with golf and a trip to Scotland also on the cards.
It is rumoured that his wife Melania will join him on the visit and that the couple may be honoured by the Coldstream Guards when they meet the Queen at Windsor Castle.
This would be the First Lady’s first trip abroad since her hospitalisation for a kidney procedure last month. Melania was unable to accompany her husband to the G7 summit in Canada or to the Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, both of which took place earlier this month.
Read on to find out when the trip is happening, who he’ll be meeting, reactions to the announcement and a summary of Mr Trump’s relationship with Theresa May.
When is Donald Trump visiting the UK?
The US leader’s long-delayed trip will begin on July 13 and will include talks with Theresa May and an overnight stay. While it was originally due to last just 24 hours, it may be extended to up to three days.
The White House press secretary let slip the date of Mr Trump’s trip in April in a press conference for journalists’ children to mark America’s ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’.
Friday July 13 has been chosen as the date because Mr Trump, who is known not to enjoy long-distance travel, is in Brussels for a Nato meeting on July 11 and 12.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “He will hold bilateral talks with the Prime Minister during his visit. Further details will be set out in due course.”
Mr Trump is understood to have personally approved the visit after weeks of careful negotiations between his staff, Number 10 and the UK embassy in Washington.
The visit offers a chance for Mrs May to improve her personal relationship with the US president, which figures close to both leaders privately acknowledge is not especially warm.
Yet it also triggered renewed fears of mass protests – one of the reasons Mr Trump has delayed coming to Britain for so long according to US and UK sources.
While the exact details of the trip remain under discussion, Mr Trump is expected to hold talks with Mrs May at Chequers, her countryside residence. UK aides believe that pomp and ceremony will help foster a warmer relationship with the US president.
He is likely to meet the Queen at Windsor Castle before heading to Scotland, having repeatedly said how much his Scottish mother admired Her Majesty.
US Ambassador Woody Johnson has said Mr Trump will meet the Queen during his visit, telling Sky News the President’s team were currently working on “various scenarios” for the visit.
Asked by interviewer Kay Burley if that involved a meeting with the Queen, he said: “Yes. Yes, I mean he has to see the head of state.
“Putting his foot on the ground of British soil is job one – very, very important, very symbolic. Meeting Her Majesty is the most important thing, because she is head of state.”
It is also understood that Mr Trump is expected to play a hole of golf with Prince Andrew at his family’s Turnberry course.
Both Mr Trump and the Duke of York are known for their love of golf. The US president has reportedly spent more than 100 days of his presidency at golf clubs, and has used the sport to bond with other world leaders.
Mr Trump is expected largely to avoid the capital, however, in a move that would minimise his exposure to the protests that are expected.
He will not be invited to address both Houses of Parliament – an honour that has been accorded to previous US presidents – because of opposition from John Bercow, the Commons speaker.
Last November Mr Bercow said that addressing the Commons was “an earned honour and in my view he (Trump) has not earned that honour”.
A spokesman for the Speaker’s Office told The Daily Telegraph: “Mr Speaker’s views on this subject are a matter of public record. In any case, no request to address both Houses of Parliament has been received.”
The trip will not be the full state visit offered to Mr Trump just days after his inauguration, for which a date has yet to be set. Instead, it will be a ‘working visit’.
The US President will not have time to meet Jeremy Corbyn during his visit. The Labour leader previously said he wanted to talk to Mr Trump about his “problems with Mexicans and Muslims” when he visits the UK.
Ed Miliband, Mr Corbyn’s predecessor as Labour leader, met President Obama when he made a state visit to the UK in 2011.
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Reactions to the announcement
Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, said the news was “fantastic” but senior Labour figures warned that critics will not hold their tongues during the trip.
Sadiq Khan, Labour’s London Mayor, said on following the announcement: “If he comes to London, President Trump will experience an open and diverse city that has always chosen unity over division and hope over fear. He will also no doubt see that Londoners hold their liberal values of freedom of speech very dear.”
The pair have previously clashed publicly, with Mr Trump tweeting criticism of Mr Khan’s comments after the London Bridge terror attack.
Mr Trump unexpectedly pulled out of a ‘working visit’ in February to open the new US embassy in London, saying he was not a “big fan” of the deal Barack Obama struck for the building.
However US and UK sources have suggested concerns over protests in London and continued hostility to a visit from the Labour leadership was a bigger reason for the cancellation.
Mr Johnson tweeted: “FANTASTIC news that President Donald Trump will at last come to Britain on 13 July. Looking forward to seeing our closest ally and friend on the GREATest visit ever.”
Trump’s relationship with May
Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visit to America in April, where the French and US leaders heralded a new “special relationship”, has cast the May-Trump relationship in a harsh light.
There are concerns in Government that Mrs May’s clashes with Mr Trump have helped Emmanuel Macron, the French President, develop a closer relationship with the US President.
A Cabinet source said: “There is genuine concern that Theresa May has mishandled the special relationship and allowed Emmanuel Macron to get ahead of us. We are trying to play catch up.”
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, told The Daily Telegraph: “One of the reasons that we are way behind the French is because we have got senior Labour figures who want to have mass street protests in London.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with Sadiq Khan and sent a message that the President is not welcome here.”
Source: yahoo