President to get a Guard of Honour when he meets the Queen for tea at Windsor
THE US President will get a Guard of Honour when he meets the Queen for tea at Windsor Castle tomorrow.
Mr Trump will be treated to red carpet treatment when he arrives in the UK at lunchtime today.
Although not formally a state visit, the arrangements have been carefully designed to ensure that the US leader feels he is being treated with the appropriate level of pomp and ceremony.
Tight security will try to avoid exposing Mr Trump to planned protests in central London.
His schedule involves a black-tie dinner at Blenheim Palace tonight with US and UK business leaders and cabinet ministers, hosted by Theresa May. Ahead of his arrival the PM said she would use the visit to ‘forge a strengthened, ambitious and future-proof trade partnership’ with the US after Brexit. Mrs May said there was ‘no stronger alliance’ than the special relationship between the two countries and ‘there will be no alliance more important in the years ahead’.
Hailing the two countries’ ‘uniquely close partnership in the fight for democracy and global security’, she also pointed to our ‘unrivalled’ trade and investment relationship.
Meanwhile, the monarch will meet the US leader and First Lady Melania at a specially-erected dais in the Quadrangle of the historic Berkshire royal residence on Friday afternoon. A Guard of Honour, formed of the Coldstream Guards, will give a Royal Salute and the US national anthem will be played. The Queen and Mr Trump will then inspect the Guard of Honour together, before watching a military march-past.
Afterwards Mr and Mrs Trump will join the Queen for tea at the Castle in her private apartments. Unusually, no other royals will be involved in Friday’s visit. Tomorrow morning Mr Trump and Mrs May will view a mock counter-terror exercise involving special forces units from both countries.
The joint exercise, at a secret
military location, will involve the demonstration of hi-tech equipment used by the SAS and their US counterparts in joint operations.
The two leaders will also meet US officer cadets embedded with the UK military for part of their training. Separately, Mrs Trump and Philip May are due to meet military veterans and schoolchildren at an undisclosed location.
Among the firms attending are representatives of drinks firm Diageo, McLaren, Arup and from the US Blackstone group and BlackRock asset management.
After the special forces exercise tomorrow, the two leaders will travel to Chequers for the summit which will also be attended by Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary.
On the agenda will be Russia, trade, Brexit and the Middle East.
After tea with the Queen the President and his entourage will leave for Scotland, where he is expected to stay at his Turnberry resort in Ayrshire.
One of the biggest ever police operations will be staged to cover Mr Trump’s brief UK stay. Thousands of officers will be on duty to cover the visit.
When the Queen meets Mr Trump on Friday he will be the 12th US president she has met out of a possible 13, as she didn’t meet President Johnson.
Yesterday the Mail revealed how Americans in Britain have been warned to ‘keep a low profile’ amid fears of violent demonstrations.
In an extraordinary alert, the US Embassy urged its citizens to be on their guard around ‘large gatherings that may become violent’ while the President is in the UK.