Revealed: Trump to visit UK this summer
President’s much-delayed trip set for July ...and he could stay with Queen at Balmoral
‘Cancellations and delays’
DONALD Trump’s longplanned visit to Britain is back on, the Mail can reveal today.
In a major boost to relations between London and Washington, the US President is expected to come to the UK for several days this summer.
A senior Whitehall source said dates in mid- July were ‘pencilled in’ the diary, with July 14 the favourite.
Mr Trump is expected to hold talks with Theresa May either in No 10 or at Chequers. He could also meet the Queen or other senior members of the Royal Family, even though it is not a state visit. Officials will be keen to roll out the red carpet while also minimising the prospect of protests.
The President is expected to attend the Nato summit in Brussels on July 11 and 12 and travel on to the UK afterwards.
His visit to Britain, which was first mooted when he took office in January last year, has suffered repeated cancellations and delays.
He was due to come to the UK in February to open the new US embassy in London. But the White House went cold on the idea.
The Prime Minister was among the first foreign leaders to visit the White House. However, since then, their relationship has had turbulent moments. They clashed last year over Mr Trump’s tweets sharing anti-Muslim propaganda from a far-Right group called Britain First.
The President also had a run-in with London Mayor Sadiq Khan over the terror threat to the capital.
The new dates for a so-called working visit will be a boost to Mrs May and a sign that relations between Downing Street and the White House have improved.
The two leaders spoke repeatedly and at length last week as they discussed their response to the chemical weapons attacks on Douma in Syria.
British fighter jets joined the US and France in carrying out bombing raids on regime military targets.
There is still no fixed date for an official state visit, which was offered by Mrs May when she visited Washington in January last year.
Mr Trump has developed close ties with Emmanuel Macron of France.
He was invited to be guest of honour at the Bastille Day celebrations last year, when his 24- hour visit was topped off with a military parade. He and his wife Melania dined with the French president and his wife Brigitte at the Eiffel Tower.
UK diplomats have become concerned about the French stealing a march on relations with the US. Next week Mr Trump will host President Macron, the first state visit by a foreign leader since he entered the White House.
Ministers have discussed plans for Mr Trump to meet the Queen at Balmoral Castle before visiting one of his two golf courses in Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire. Officials believe using the Royal Family’s remote estate would prevent embarrassing scenes where he is confronted by thousands of demonstrators.
Mr Trump is said to have expressed an interest in playing a round of golf at the Queen’s nine-hole course at the Aberdeenshire castle.
The President had been due to open the new £1billion US embassy at Nine Elms in south London in February. He said he had dropped the visit because the old embassy in Mayfair had been sold on the cheap.
Following the publication of the Mail’s story he tweeted that he was ‘not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for peanuts’.
It led to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson accusing Jeremy Corbyn and Mr Khan of putting the special relationship at risk with their opposition to a visit by Mr Trump. He said he would not allow investment in Britain to be ‘endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall’.
‘The US is the biggest single investor in the UK – yet Khan and Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk,’ Mr Johnson said at the time.
Mrs May declared she would be very happy to welcome Mr Trump, saying: ‘The USA is one of this country’s closest allies and we look forward to hosting the President later this year.’
Mr Corbyn has said Mr Trump should not be invited and urged his followers to turn out in force if the US President visited the UK – to send him a ‘clear message’.
More than a million people signed a petition last year calling for the state visit to be cancelled.
Downing Street made no comment.