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(L-R) Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince George of Cambridge, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (R) watch the fly-past from the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the Trooping The Colour ceremony on June 13, 2015 in London, England.
Despite the visit becoming a “working visit,” mass protests are planned around the country. The itinerary appears to be designed to keep Trump as far away as possible from London, where 50,000 could demonstrate at a “Stop Trump” rally on Friday.
Permission has been granted by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, not one of Trump’s biggest fans, to allow a 20-foot-tall balloon depicting Trump as a baby to be flown over the capital during the visit. The campaigners who paid for the balloon have said it represents Trump’s character as an “angry baby with a fragile ego and tiny hands,” but it has drawn criticism for being disrespectful.
Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Monday that the “special relationship” between the U.K. and U.S. is “quite fraught at the moment.”
“President Trump isn’t particularly popular in the U.K. Last week, there was a bit of a kerfuffle over the fact that someone is going to fly an air balloon with an effigy of Trump in a nappy and that’s been allowed in London. I don’t think he takes very well to personal insults, so he will notice it,” Lowe said. “So there’s problems there on the transatlantic side.”
After meeting the Queen in Windsor, Trump is expected to travel to Scotland to play golf at one of his two golf courses in the country over the weekend.
The costs of policing Trump’s visit are estimated to come to around £5 million ($6.6 million), and when the Scottish government balked at contributing towards this, the government in London stepped in, promising to foot the bill.
