US president’s visit to UK on the cards for ‘later this year’
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump is expected to visit the UK in the second half of this year and “it’s clear that the president wants to come”, according to a senior British government source.
Earlier this month the president cancelled a planned visit to open the US Embassy in London, prompting speculation that he was riled by a rebuke from Mrs May over his apparent support of a right-wing group.
Mr Trump is also said to be concerned that he will face ugly protests in the capital after Labour MPs and London Mayor Sadiq Khan made it clear he was not welcome.
But as Mr Trump held a oneto-one meeting with Mrs May in Davos, he insisted he will make a visit in 2018, adding: “We love your country.” Mrs May met Mr Trump at the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort, and discussed topics ranging from Iran and Syria to the US trade levy on Ulster-made Bombardier aircraft wings.
Mr Trump said: “We’ve had a great discussion – we’re on the same wavelength, I think, in every respect. And the prime minister and myself have had a really great relationship, although some people don’t necessarily believe that, but I can tell you it’s true.
“I have tremendous respect for the prime minister and the job she’s doing. And I think the feeling is mutual.”
Shaking hands with Mrs May before the cameras, Mr Trump said that they would “talk about” his mooted state visit to the UK.
Meanwhile, George Soros said Mr Trump is risking a nuclear war with North Korea and predicts that the groundswell of opposition he’s generated will be his downfall.
“I consider the Trump administration a danger to the world,” the billionaire investor said in a speech from Davos, Switzerland. “But I regard it as a purely temporary phenomenon that will disappear in 2020, or even sooner.” He expects a Democratic “landslide” in the 2018 elections.
Soros, the 87-year-old chairman of Soros Fund Management, said the US must accept North Korea as a nuclear power, and then cooperate and negotiate with China to establish an alliance that’s better equipped to confront the nation, he said. His comments come amid heightened trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.