Fear of mass protests may have led Trump to cancel UK visit to open embassy
US president Donald Trump has confirmed he will not travel to the UK to open the new American embassy – and hit out at the location of the $1.2bn (£886m) project.
Writing on Twitter, Mr Trump said he thought the embassy’s move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a “bad deal”.
He wrote: “Reason I cancelled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!”
British government sources said they had never officially been informed of a date for Mr Trump to make a visit, but speculation had suggested he would formally open the embassy at a ceremony in February.
The new building will open for business on January 16.
In December Ambassador Woody Johnson said he was looking forward to welcoming the president when he visited, adding: “I think he will be very impressed with this building and the people who occupy it.”
He said the new embassy was a “signal to the world that this special relationship that we have is stronger and is going to grow and get better”.
Despite Mr Trump publicly blaming predecessor Barack Obama, the US announced plans to move to the new site in October 2008 – when George W Bush was in the White House.
On the embassy web page about the project, it said: “The project has been funded entirely by the proceeds of the sale of other US Government properties in London, not through appropriated funds.”
Mr Trump’s decision not to head across the Atlantic comes despite Prime Minister Theresa May saying that a future visit was still on the cards last week.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Our position is that an offer for a state visit has been extended and accepted.”
Mrs May controversially extended the offer of a state visit – officially on behalf of the Queen – when she became the first world leader to meet Mr Trump in the White House following his inauguration last year.
Since then, however, the president has indicated he does not want to take up the invitation if he is going to face mass demonstrations and it had been expected he could make a low-key working visit rather than a trip which involved all the trappings of a state occasion.
Last month, the White House said it would announce details “soon” of Mr Trump’s proposed visit to the UK.
In reply to Mr Trump’s tweet, former Labour leader Ed Miliband posted: “Nope it’s because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message.”
Mrs May and Mr Trump fell out spectacularly in November over his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted online by the deputy leader of the farright Britain First group, Jayda Fransen.
At the time, the PM said Mr Trump was “wrong” to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at Mrs May on Twitter by telling her to focus on “destructive radical Islamic terrorism” in the UK, rather than on him.
Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jo Swinson said: “News that Trump has thrown his toys out of the pram and cancelled his trip to the UK will be welcomed by all of us who reject his abhorrent views. But it’s a disappointing sign of how weak May’s leadership is that she wasn’t brave enough to call the visit off herself. The Prime Minister should be ashamed that she was so keen to roll out the red carpet to a man who spreads hate and division at every turn, and goes out of his way to undermine British values.”
Cardiff South and Penarth Labour MP Stephen Doughty said on Twitter: “Reason @realDonaldTrump canceled trip to London is that we are not a big fan of his racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour. Big protests if he came to cut ribbon. He wanted the red carpet treatment and cheering crowds – NO!”
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, an ally of the US President, suggested that concerns about protests may have been the real reason for the visit’s cancellation.
“It’s disappointing – he has been to countries all over the world and yet he has not been to the one with whom he is closest,” Mr Farage said.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of supporting protests.
“Maybe, just maybe, Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party planning mass protests, maybe those optics he didn’t like the look of.”
Labour MP Chuka Umunna said it was “very welcome he is not coming any more”, adding: “He runs counter to British values.”
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that Mr Trump was more aware of opposition in the UK than in other countries he had visited because it was expressed in English.
“I think it’s a great shame; the United States is very much one of our closest allies, but the alliance isn’t based on who lives in the White House and who lives in Number 10, it’s based on shared values, common interests and absolute commitment to the international rulesbased system which we have both spent the best part of 70 years upholding through Nato, through the United Nations and through various other treaty organisations around the world,” he told Today.
“While I think it’s a shame, I think – if I’m honest – it more reflects the fact that other people criticise in French, Italian, Korean and other languages and we criticise in English, and it’s much easier for him to read English.”
Brendan Cox, widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, echoed suggestions that concerns about protests may have been the real reason for the visit’s cancellation. He tweeted: “That is totally plausible Donald... Nothing to do with what would have been the biggest protests since the Iraq War.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who fell out with Mr Trump after the president attacked his handling of the London Bridge terror attack, said: “It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city’s values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance.
“His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests. This just reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place. Let’s hope that Donald Trump also revisits the pursuit of his divisive agenda.”