Donald Trump will pay his first state visit to Britain in June, nearly one year after he sparked controversy during his last trip to the UK by saying Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan would “probably kill” a trade deal with the US.
British government figures confirmed the US president would make a state visit, one month after he heads to Japan for a state visit that will see him become the first world leader to meet the new Japanese emperor. The White House and Downing Street both declined to comment.
The formal invitation will come from the Queen, as required by protocol. Mr Trump also met Queen Elizabeth II during his visit to the UK last summer. The Queen had dinner last month with Woody Johnson, the US ambassador. The White House and Downing Street have been negotiating arrangements for the state visit since late last year.
The visit is expected to coincide with the 75th anniversary of D-Day, which will also see Mr Trump attend an event in France to commemorate the end of the second world war.
Some British media have speculated about the possibility of a banquet at Buckingham Palace and a carriage procession down the Mall. It remains unclear if Mr Trump will address parliament. John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has so far refused to offer an invitation, and has previously said it was an “earned honour” and not a right.
The visit will raise the spectre of protests against the US president who remains very unpopular in the UK. According to a recent poll by YouGov, 67 per cent of Britons maintain a negative impression of Mr Trump.
During his last visit to the UK, Mr Trump largely avoided central London due to the expected protests. Activists floated a six-metre helium-filled effigy of the US president — called the “Trump baby” blimp — in Parliament Square.
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Mr Trump’s last UK visit came on the heels of his attendance at a Nato summit in Brussels where he stunned leaders by making scathing attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel over the level of Germany’s defence spending.
When Mr Trump visited Britain last summer, he spurred controversy by criticising Mrs May in an interview with The Sun newspaper that ran the day before he met the UK leader at her weekend residence of Chequers.
Mr Trump criticised the way she was handling Brexit and suggested that a US-UK trade deal was unlikely, although he rapidly backtracked. Separate from the upcoming state visit, a trade delegation is expected to be announced for the autumn, which could explore the potential for a post-Brexit trade deal between the two economies.
Mr Trump last year also offended Number 10 during his visit by suggesting that Boris Johnson — the former foreign secretary and currently a leading candidate to replace Mrs May — “would be a great prime minister”.
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