Kelly In a right state on Trump visit

just poke fun at his hair. Option three would be not to turn up at all. Ignore him.

The result would be a series of ‘tumbleweed’ photo ops that would present a challenge to arguably the world’s vainest man to persuade people the largest crowds ever assembled in the history of state visits in the UK came to see him.

I’m less inclined to ban the US president from these shores than some because while Trump is an egotistical, sexist, bigoted clown with a worrying empathy towards white supremacists, compared to other recent subjects of state visits, he’s an OK kind of guy. Let’s not forget we’ve rolled out the red carpet to leaders of Saudi Arabia and China recently whose regimes are less than au fait with human rights.

And within living memory the British Establishment, while denouncing Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, invited apartheid South Africa’s President PW Botha to the UK in 1984 for a state visit, thanks to Margaret Thatcher.

Let’s face it, these visits aren’t about bestowing moral acceptance on regimes, it’s about cash and trade.

As we’re soon to leave the EU, we can’t be too sniffy about who we dance with, as they say.

Still this could all be academic for two reasons.

The first is that Trump probably won’t come anyway because he’s not assured of a fraternal welcome.

The second is that you really can’t see him lasting much longer unless the Trump presidency is being judged on the amount of headlines it is generating.

Maybe it is just a bizarre reality TV show nobody was told had been scheduled.

Or maybe it’s a really, really long film, and could feasibly be as sequel to Birth of a Nation. The prospect of a state visit to the UK by US President Donald Trump is a matter of some debate