Britain has rolled out the red carpet for United States President Donald Trump’s second state visit, complete with a day of pageantry behind closed doors and a white-tie state banquet at Windsor Castle, far from protests taking place across the United Kingdom.
King Charles III hosted Trump in Windsor, a town located 40 kilometres (25 miles) to the west of central London, on Wednesday, a day before trade talks are set to begin between the American leader and Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British leader’s rural retreat.
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Trump’s visit coincides with critical trade negotiations between the US and many of its key trading partners, including the UK. During his stay, both countries plan to announce several deals on technology and civil nuclear energy, and British leaders are expected to finalise American investments worth billions of dollars.
If the UK authorities’ goal was to make Trump feel most welcome, it appeared to be working.
“A lot of things here warm my heart,” said Trump, whose mother hailed from Scotland and who has two golf courses in the UK. He described Charles, 76, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, as “a very, very special man” and gave a flowery tribute to the US’s “priceless and eternal” relationship with the UK, saying the word “special does not begin to do it justice”.
This state visit is “certainly unprecedented”, said Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from Windsor.
“The UK government hopes that all the glitter and glamour of a state visit and all that entails, mixing with the royals, the pomp and the pageantry, will put Donald Trump in a good mood and make him more malleable to perhaps negotiate on trade,” he said, noting that Starmer also hopes to be heard on certain foreign policy matters.
The day began with heir to the throne Prince William and his wife Catherine welcoming the Trumps to Windsor Castle, home to the British royals for nearly a millennium.
King Charles and Queen Camilla then joined them for a carriage procession through the grounds of Windsor estate towards the castle.
About 1,500 troops in total were involved in ceremonial events throughout the day – almost double those on duty for the recent state visit of France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
Later, the Trumps visited St George’s Chapel to lay a wreath at Queen Elizabeth II’s tomb and pay their respects, which the president declared a “great honour”.
A formal state banquet began at 8:30 British Summer Time (19:30 GMT) in St George’s Hall, featuring royals, the Trumps and guests that included many tech giants and industry leaders, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Trump and the king addressed those gathered.
“This is truly one of the highest honours of my life,” Trump said.
“We’re joined by history and faith, by love and language and by transcendent ties of culture, tradition, ancestry and destiny,” the president added. “We’re like two notes in one chord or two verses of the same poem, each beautiful on its own, but really meant to be played together”.
The king, meanwhile, toasted the shared history of the UK and US.
“We celebrate a relationship between two countries that surely neither old George could possibly have imagined,” Charles said, referring to George Washington, the first US president who fought and won independence from the British in the late 1700s, and King George III, the man he fought against. “The ocean may still divide us, but in so many ways we are now the closest of kin”.
He also nodded to Trump’s British roots and love of golf, noting that British soil makes for “rather splendid golf courses”.
Jeffrey Epstein’s shadow and protests
Starmer is likely hoping that making progress with Trump on the trade front will help alleviate his political troubles at home.
The British leader recently sacked his ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over the diplomat’s connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019. Starmer has also endured two resignations from his government in recent weeks, one of which was linked to a scandal involving sexually explicit messages of a colleague.
Trump has generated plenty of headlines over his own ties to Epstein recently, some of which have riled his MAGA base. One particularly hot topic concerns a handwritten birthday note to Epstein, along with a sketch of a woman’s body and Trump’s signature, which the president dismissed as a “hoax”.
Anti-Trump protests – fuelled by dislike for the president’s politics, links to Epstein and his approach to international conflicts, particularly Gaza and Ukraine – stand in stark contrast to the lavish royal welcome. Polls in the UK show that Trump remains a deeply unpopular figure.
On Tuesday, dozens of protesters from the Stop Trump Coalition gathered outside Windsor Castle to demonstrate against his visit. Four people were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications after they projected images of Trump and Epstein onto the nearly 1,000-year-old castle, according to Thames Valley police.
Speaking at a rally in Parliament Square, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn congratulated the activists who projected Trump’s image alongside Epstein’s onto Windsor Castle, saying “well done” to those responsible.
On Wednesday, thousands marched in anti-Trump protests in London, and two further arrests were made in Windsor over separate public order incidents. Thames Valley Police said a 56-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and using threatening or abusive language, while a 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of public order and assault. Both remain in custody.
In an opinion piece written for the UK daily The Guardian before Trump’s visit, London’s Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan, who Trump has repeatedly insulted and denigrated, accused Trump of doing more than anyone else to “fan the flames of divisive, far-right politics around the world in recent years”.
Khan said that while he recognised the practical reasons for maintaining strong ties with the US, the UK should not be afraid to criticise Trump.
The so-called special relationship between the UK and US, Khan said, “includes being open and honest with each other”.
“At times, this means being a critical friend and speaking truth to power,” he added.
Some on the other side of the political spectrum, however, are close to the president.
Trump, for example, has publicly endorsed Nigel Farage, head of the far-right anti-immigration Reform UK party, calling him a friend.
Farage has said his party’s policies regarding immigration were “partly inspired or at least echo Donald Trump’s own deportation programmes in the US”, said Al Jazeera’s Veselinovic.
Trade and foreign policy
The UK’s primary goal with the state visit “is to try to get more favourable terms with the US in the existing UK-US trade deal,” said Veselinovic, but that doesn’t mean it will happen.
“It is looking like that may perhaps not happen for Keir Starmer during this visit,” she said, noting how critics have said Starmer may have extended an invitation for this unprecedented second state visit too soon. Some have suggested that Starmer “should’ve dangled it as an award for more favourable treatment”, she added.
During Thursday’s talks, Starmer is also expected to discuss foreign affairs with Trump.
Starmer has tried to use his influence to maintain US support for Ukraine, with limited results. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he hosted in Alaska last month, but has not made good on threats to impose new sanctions on Russia for shunning peace negotiations.
Starmer also departs from Trump over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, with the UK saying it will formally recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations later this month, an announcement “which was roundly criticised by the US administration”, said Veselinovic.