US President Donald Trump is expected to finally have his state visit to the UK in early 2018, according to an American ambassador, where it is anticipated that he will officially open a new American embassy on UK soil. The ambassador, Woody Johnson, told the BBC’s “Today” show that he expects the President to visit the UK in a working capacity early on in next year.
The prospect of Trump’s state visit to the UK was thrown into question when the US President started an argument with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Twitter with regards to a supposed terrorist threat to the UK posed by the Muslim population.
Trump retweeted some posts by the far right-wing, anti-Muslim organisation Britain First, and May condemned him for it, since sharing the views of a hate group is highly irresponsible of a world leader (supposedly the leader of the free world) and not in line with what she perceives as British values.
The announcements made by Johnson are the first official confirmations on behalf of the United States Government that President Trump intends to visit the UK in a formal capacity, purportedly so that he can open up a new American embassy on British soil. However, it is not expected to be a formal state visit, which would include a meeting with the Queen (who once joked that she wanted Trump to visit because she would be legally allowed to kill him).
Trump will probably not be meeting the Queen
Aside from the fact that a formal state visit by Trump to the UK is not at all wanted by anyone in the country, the Queen will probably be too busy, anyway, because the Commonwealth summit is next year. Johnson has also said that the media has “probably misinterpreted” what exactly went down between May and Trump in the wake of Trump’s Britain First retweets.
However, the reason that Trump retweeted the posts – that he hates Muslims and wants them all gone – remains alarmingly clear.
A picture of former US President Ronald Reagan’s state visit to the UK where he is smiling to the cameras with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has been circulating around the internet since Johnson’s announcement that Trump plans to visit the UK next year.
This is because many parallels can be drawn between Reagan and Trump, and between May and Thatcher. May’s nickname among the Labour-supporting community is “Maggie May,” while Reagan is another Republican President who ran for office with the slogan (you guess it) “Make America Great Again.”
The new US embassy will cost £800 million
The interview with Johnson that turned into an interview about Trump’s state visit to the UK was actually originally about the American embassy on British soil, which is apparently going to be moved from its current location is Grosvenor Square in the middle of London to its new location on a compound in Battersea, just south of the River Thames, which will cost a whopping £800 million.
According to Johnson, any new US embassy needs to be dedicated by a sitting President, which is why Trump would have to go to the UK if the move is to take place.
However, whatever happens with the state visit, there will certainly be some contentions between Trump and May, since the British PM told the US President that he was “wrong” to share the Britain First videos, and then Trump angrily replied that she should focus on the growing threat of Islamic State terrorism in the UK instead of what he’s up to on Twitter, which only exacerbated things. But Johnson, who is close to the President, is now saying that the relationship between Trump and the British government is still “very, very good.” Right. Well, a date for the state visit has yet to be set, so it still might not happen.
