Protesters to greet Donald Trump with 'Carnival of Resistance' during US President's July visit to UK

Protesters demonstrate against Donald Trump's Muslim ban in London in 2017
PA Wire/PA Images
Martin Coulter26 April 2018

Thousands of Donald Trump's British detractors are planning to turn out en masse during his trip to the UK in July - promising a "carnival of resistance".

The US President's long-awaited and controversial trip is expected to be a "working visit" rather than a full-blown state occasion.

Downing Street confirmed plans for the trip on Thursday, saying Mr Trump would hold "bilateral talks" with Theresa May during his visit.

Within hours of the announcement more than 80,000 people signalled their interest in an online Facebook event titled "Stop Trump's visit".

Theresa May and Donald Trump at joint press conference at the White House in 2017
PA

Organiser Owen Jones said: "It's official: Donald Trump is visiting the UK on July 13 - Everyone out on the streets!"

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Twitter: "If he comes to London, President Trump will experience an open and diverse city that has always chosen unity over division and hope over fear.

"He will also no doubt see that Londoners hold their liberal values of freedom of speech very dear."

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said word of the visit was "fantastic news" that he was making the trip "at last" and it would be the "greatest visit ever".

World War Two veteran and Labour activist Harry Leslie Smith, 95, said he would also be out on the streets, comparing Mr Trump to Hitler.

He said: "As I am 95 years old, I know what fascism looks like that's why when Donald Trump comes to visit Britain, I'll be out on the streets protesting because his politics is the same politics as Mussolini and Hitler's."

Mr Johnson once joked he would not visit parts of New York because of the "real risk of meeting Donald Trump".

Huck Magazine editor and Labour activist Michael Segalov added: "It's official, Trump is coming to the UK...it's in my diary, now it in yours. Let's show him he's not welcome."

Anti-Trump protests

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Meanwhile activist Shaista Aziz promised Mr Trump he would face a "carnival of resistance on the streets of London".

Filmmaker Amrou Al-Khadi said: "[Donald Trump] will be met with a ferocious fire that will once and for all show him how deeply despised and unwanted he really is." rump protest

Nageeb Hasson added: "I think we should show Trump exactly the same hospitality as the people from banned countries get when arriving to America."

Mr Trump cancelled a visit to the UK to open the new American embassy, criticising its move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to an "off location" at Nine Elms, south of the Thames.

'Special relationship': Donald Trump and Theresa May hold hands

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The president blamed the cost of the new embassy and its location south of the River Thames, saying it was a "bad deal".

Plans for a working visit to the UK in 2018 were announced when Mr Trump met Mrs May at Davos in January.

The July 13 date follows the Nato summit which the president is due to attend in Brussels on the previous day.

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