'Thick-skinned' Donald Trump WILL visit London despite mass protests, US ambassador reveals

Donald Trump will visit London, the US ambassador has said
PA
Kate Proctor27 April 2018
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Donald Trump will visit London despite the threat of mass protests, his ambassador to Britain revealed today.

Woody Johnson said the US president was “very thick-skinned” as he dismissed reports Mr Trump would avoid the capital on his July 13 trip to the UK, during which he is expected to meet both the Queen and Theresa May.

Mr Johnson told LBC: “He’ll definitely be coming to London. We welcome him. We’re so happy to have him.

He added: “He knows what he wants to do and he speaks in a very clear and unusual way from most politicians.

“Most politicians don’t weigh it out the way he does and so he is going to get a lot of criticism for that as people interpret where he is taking everything. But I think in the end, people are starting to, even now, realise that where he is going is a good direction.”

The move raises the prospect of an increased police presence on the capital’s streets as the outspoken and unpredictable president faces protests from critics who have pledged a “carnival of resistance”.

In one early sign of the challenges in dealing with the Trump administration, Number 10 had hoped to co-ordinate releasing details of the trip, but the president’s press secretary Sarah Sanders slipped out the information first during a “take your child to work day” at the White House.

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Mrs May said: “I am looking forward to welcoming President Trump to the United Kingdom for a working visit on July 13.” Downing Street said further details would be set out “in due course”.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has clashed with the president over the response to the London Bridge terror attack, said: “(Mr Trump will) ... no doubt see that Londoners hold their liberal values of freedom of speech very dear.”

Plans for a working visit to the UK this year were announced when Mr Trump met Mrs May at Davos in January. It will follow a Nato summit which the president is due to attend in Brussels.

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Mr Trump cancelled a planned trip to London to open the new US embassy in Vauxhall earlier this year, complaining the move to an “off location” south of the Thames had been a “bad deal”.

A full state visit — which would involve lavish ceremonies and a stay with the Queen at Buckingham Palace— has been put off indefinitely, though Number 10 insists the invitation stands.

Asked if the president wants to meet the Queen, Mr Johnson said: “Everybody wants to meet the Queen. He knows the value added of the royal family and what they bring to the table is enormous.”

Sir Christopher Meyer, a former British Ambassador to the United States, suggested the trip could mirror the working visit of George W Bush in 2001, which included a visit to Chequers and Buckingham Palace all taking place within 24 hours. “The answer to avoiding demonstrators is to use helicopters,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme.

Shaista Aziz, from the Stop Trump Coalition, said: “We are planning a carnival of resistance in London and on the streets of the UK… What he has been doing and saying has been breathtaking.”

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