Trump in ‘dummy run’ visit to Britain
...to prove his behaviour won’t embarrass Queen!
DONALD Trump has been asked to make a ‘dummy’ State visit to Britain this year to show he can avoid embarrassing the Queen.
He has been invited to come for brief talks with Theresa May, but with none of the Royal pomp and circumstance he wanted.
The decision will be hailed as a victory by nearly two million people who signed a petition calling for the trip to be downgraded to spare the Queen’s blushes because of Trump’s ‘misogyny and vulgarity’.
As a face-saving measure, the US President will be offered a State visit next year – but it won’t take place unless the low-profile trip is a success.
The U-turn follows concern on both sides of the Atlantic that if his first formal visit to the UK since winning power is a full-blown State occasion it could be a disaster.
In London there are fears that demonstrations – or Trump’s eccentric antics – could embarrass the Queen. And the Prime Minister is desperate to avoid upsetting him to win a good post-Brexit trade deal with the United States.
The White House is equally keen for Trump not to be subjected to ugly mass protests.
By staging a ‘trial’ trip, both sides hope to take the sting out of the controversy. If it is a shambles the subsequent State visit can be deferred. A senior diplomat said: ‘A low-profile trip followed by a formal State visit is among the ideas being considered.’
The State visit invitation dates back to Mrs May’s trip to the White House in January. Some claimed she was jumping the gun.
It was reported the President wanted a round of golf at the private nine-hole course at Balmoral – with Her Majesty looking on.
He is also said to have wanted to meet Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge.
His unpredictable approach to protocol raised more eyebrows during his visit to Paris ten days ago to meet President Emmanuel Macron.
The pair had an excruciating 30-second handshake. And his comment that Mrs Macron, who is 24 years her husband’s senior, was ‘in such good shape’ was denounced as ‘patronising’.
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘A State visit has been offered and accepted. The details are yet to be agreed.’
The new White House communications director has been hurriedly deleting tweets in which he insulted Donald Trump.
Within hours of his appointment on Friday, Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci, 53, was removing posts in which he called his new boss a ‘hack politician’ whose rhetoric is ‘anti-American’.