Donald and Melania Trump are “really looking forward” to meeting Queen Elizabeth II when the two visit the United Kingdom next week, according to U.S. Ambassador Robert “Woody” Johnson.
As People reports, Johnson talked up the president and First Lady’s upcoming visit to the U.K., which will include a visit with the Monarch, who serves as the nation’s ceremonial head of state.
“A highlight of any President’s visit to the U.K. [is when] the President and First Lady will travel to Windsor Castle to meet Her Majesty the Queen. As head of state, Her Majesty has met every U.S. president since 1952 (amazing) – with only one exception and that’s Lyndon B. Johnson. I know the President and First Lady are really looking forward to meeting her.”
The Trumps’ meeting with the Queen will not, however, count as an official state visit, as previously reported by the Inquisitr . Official state visits usually take place at Buckingham Palace, accompanied by honor guards and pomp and ceremony. Instead, the Trumps will meet Queen Elizabeth at Kensington Palace, which you may remember is the site where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married a couple of months ago. The reason the Queen is not treating this as an official state visit is a matter of some controversy.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will miss a service on Thursday at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral because she is feeling unwell, according to Buckingham Palace https://t.co/aj7RhDYJ7W pic.twitter.com/1e35VN9Cq1
— CNN (@CNN) June 28, 2018
Shortly after his inauguration in January 2017, Trump was offered an official state visit to the U.K. However, plans for an official state visit have been put on hold after reports that protests would erupt should he visit. Instead, Trump is calling the visit a “working visit.”
Still, protests there will be. The Lord Mayor of London, vocal anti-Trump critic Sadiq Khan, has approved a giant, inflatable float that resembles Donald Trump as a diaper-wearing baby, to fly over London during Trump’s visit, according to this Inquisitr report.
Meanwhile, as reported by the Inquisitr , efforts are underway in the U.K. to have Green Day’s 2004 song “American Idiot” to the #1 position on the charts, in protest of Trump’s visit.
Trump, for his part, will largely avoid London during his visit, according to Business Insider . Instead, he’ll spend most of his time in Scotland, where he owns several golf properties. Scotland was also the birthplace and childhood home of his mother, Mary Anne Trump.
Besides meeting with the Queen, other items on Trump’s agenda for the visit include a black-tie dinner with business leaders and a visit with Prime Minister Theresa May to a military demonstration.
