US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in the United Kingdom late on Tuesday for a historic two-day state visit that will see the US leader hosted with royal pomp by King Charles III at Windsor Castle before talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The state visit, the second for the US president, comes as the British government hopes a multibillion-dollar technology deal will show the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance.
As he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump noted that during his past state visit, he was hosted at Buckingham Palace but is set to be hosted in Windsor by King Charles this time around.
“I don’t want to say one is better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate,” Trump said. He described King Charles as “an elegant gentleman” saying “he represents the country so well.”
But amid the expected blend of 21st-century diplomacy and royal pageantry, criticism is greeting the visit in the UK.
Activists protest Trump’s visit
On Tuesday, protesters gathered for a demonstration ahead of the arrival of Trump in Windsor, while four people were arrested following a projection of images of the US president alongside sex offender Jeffrey Epstein onto the royal Windsor Castle.
Ahead of the visit, campaigners said they would protest what they called “our government’s choice to honour a man who is violating human rights in the United States and around the world.”
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And even though Mr. Trump will not be visiting Parliament, where the House of Commons will be in recess for a party conference session on Wednesday, protesters from the Stop Trump Coalition will assemble in Portland Place in the heart of London before making their way to Parliament Square.
However, the itinerary in Windsor and at Chequers, both well outside London, will keep Trump away from a planned mass protest his visit.
Ukraine and Gaza on the agenda
Meanwhile, British PM Keir Starmer, who has already shown he’s adept at charming Trump, noted the US president’s Oval Office decorating choices and decision to display a bust of Winston Churchill in his visit to Washington in February.
And during Trump’s private trip to Scotland in July, Starmer visited and praised Trump’s golf courses.
Both leaders are expected to sign nuclear energy deals, expand cooperation on defence technology, and explore ways to bolster ties between the US and US financial hubs during their meeting on Thursday.
But there are pressing and key foreign policy issues on Ukraine and the war in Gaza for the Western leaders, and it remains to be seen how both can align their actions.
Starmer has attempted to use his influence to maintain US support for Ukraine, with limited success. While Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he has not made good on threats to impose new sanctions on Russia for shunning peace negotiations.
European NATO partners strongly condemned Russia’s drone invasion of NATO member Poland last week and promised additional aircraft and troops for the bloc’s eastern border. But Trump downplayed the incident, saying it “could have been a mistake.”
Starmer also departs from Trump over Israel’s war in Gaza and has said the UK will formally recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations later this month, something that’s at sharp variance with US policy on Israel.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill is making a “mistake” by boycotting a state banquet for US President Donald Trump, the deputy first minister has said.
Emma Little-Pengelly, who is set to attend the reception at Windsor Castle, said it was an opportunity for people in Northern Ireland “to have their voice heard”.
Last week, O’Neill said she was “very comfortable” with her decision, describing the war in Gaza as the “biggest humanitarian crisis of our time”.
Little-Pengelly said, “what’s happening in the Middle East is absolutely tragic” and “everyone wants to see a ceasefire; everyone wants to see peace”.
She said in 2024 O’Neill met the then US President Joe Biden “when he took a very similar approach to this particular president”.
The DUP minister added: “The key question for people to ask themselves is – by Michelle O’Neill or anyone else staying at home and not attending, will that change a single thing?
“In all of my engagement I have urged all of the key parties to do their best to bring about peace in the Middle East.
“It is only by engaging, it’s only by talking, it’s only by urging that peace that you can achieve that.”
Tensions at Stormont
Little-Pengelly was also asked about relations between the DUP and Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government.
O’Neill and DUP leader Gavin Robinson clashed last week in a row over the Army withdrawing from a jobs fair in Londonderry.
Robinson accused O’Neill of not being a “first minister for all” over her party’s stance, while O’Neill told the DUP MP to “butt out”.
Little-Pengelly said there would “always be some things that we disagree on” but there were “many things across the executive where there is agreement”.
The deputy first minister said she believed that both she and O’Neill had “reached out, both of us have tried to work through those responsibilities that we have”.
“But at times there are things that the first minister has done which I disagree strongly with, that I do not think represents that moniker that she has given herself,” she added.
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