HAIL TO THE CHIEFS
Marion McMullen looks at the reception we’ve given American leaders arriving on our shores over the years A 20ft high inflatable, left, dubbed Trump Baby, was made specially for Donald Trump’s visit to Britain.
The protest blimp depicting the American president as an angry, orange baby was granted permission to rise above Parliament Square Gardens in London. The schedule for Trump’s visit this week ends with a weekend in Scotland. IT is the 12th time an American president has dropped in on the UK although Mr Trump’s trip has been called a working trip and not a state visit. He cancelled a planned visit to London in January to open the new American embassy after criticising its location. QUEEN Elizabeth hosted a state banquet during Barack Obama’s 2011 visit, pictured left. He praised the Queen for her “generous human touch” as he credited the monarch with helping to ensure the lasting special relationship between the UK and America. Obama also met Prince William and addressed both houses of parliament at Westminster Hall. GEORGE Bush was invited to spend the night at Buckingham Palace as the guest of Queen Elizabeth in 2003. He was the first American president to stay at the royal residence since Woodrow Wilson in 1918.
There was a massive security operation surrounding President Bush’s visit involving around 14,000 police shifts. THOUSANDS of people lined the streets of London to see American President Woodrow Wilson during his postChristmas visit to the UK in December, 1918. He was welcomed by British Prime Minister Lloyd George and King George V and honoured with a gun salute and a calvary escort. He also visited Carlisle and Manchester during his trip. PRESIDENT Bill Clinton, below, attended D-Day ceremonies during his 1994 trip to the UK. He visited the US Military Cemetery and attended a state dinner with Queen Elizabeth and heads of state and government from Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Belgium. JIMMY Carter was cheered by a 20,000 strong crowd during his visit to the UK in 1977 when he took time to travel to Newcastle.
He planted a tulip tree and Prime Minister James Callaghan planted an oak on Washington Green – the ancestral home of President George Washington. 8 RICHARD Nixon, above left, visited Britain with his wife Patricia in 1970 and spent time at Chequers in Buckinghamshire with Prime Minister Ted Heath, above right. He also informally met with the Queen. 9 JOHN F Kennedy managed time to visit Ireland during his visit to the UK for a meeting with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963. JFK came face-toface with his second cousin Mary Ryan during a visit to the family farm at Dunganstown in County Wexford. His great-grandfather lived there before emigrating to the States. 10 QUEEN Elizabeth has met all 12 American presidents who have been in power during her reign so far – except one.
She never managed to cross paths with Lyndon B Johnson, above, who took over in 1963 following John F Kennedy’s assassination.