Plan B Forum

Trump to make first state visit to UK in June

London (CNN)US President Donald Trump will make his first state visit to the United Kingdom in June, Buckingham Palace said Tuesday, more than two years after an invitation was first extended.

The visit will take place from June 3 to June 5, and will involve the full trappings of a state occasion.

Confirmation of the visit is likely to reignite debate over Queen Elizabeth's role in welcoming Trump. His last visit to the UK, in July 2018, was styled as a working visit. It nevertheless prompted huge protests in central London.

This time, the President and First Lady will attend a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day at Portsmouth, a naval city on England's south coast and important embarkation site in the World War II operation.

From there, they will travel to Normandy in France on the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, to continue D-Day commemorations. Separately, Trump and Macron will also hold a bilateral meeting.

While in the UK, Trump will also hold a meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May, as well as a private audience with the Queen.

Scooter wrote:

I don't want to even imagine what Trump would have to say to commemorate D-Day.

Trump baby blimp back and could be even bigger for UK state visit

Balloon depicting nappy-wearing US president could be five times size of predecessor



The Donald Trump baby blimp, which became the focal point of protests against the US president’s visit to the UK in July, will rise again for the state visit and could be accompanied by a bigger version, activists have revealed.

Anti-Trump campaigners are considering launching a hot air balloon, five times the size of the blimp, which would also depict Trump as a wailing baby in a nappy.

Leo Murray, who helped crowdfund the original six-metre-high inflatable, said: “The Trump baby will definitely fly again.”

He added: “We have been toying with the idea of a Trump baby hot air balloon, which would be about five times the size. But would cost a huge amount of money – upwards of £70,000.”

The shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis, called on protesters to “dust off the blimp” amid widespread opposition to the three-day state visit in the first week of June, announced on Tuesday.

Last year, the London mayor gave permission for the Trump blimp to fly over the capital in a move that infuriated the president’s supporters.

A spokesman forSadiq Khan hinted that an attempt to relaunch the balloon would be approved. He said: “Any application to fly it on land that the Greater London Authority manages will be judged by the same criteria as last time by GLA officials, the police and the Civil Aviation Authority.”

But campaigners fear the authorities will block the approval for a bigger version of the blimp. Asad Rehman, the executive director of War on Want and a member of the Stop Trump Coalition, said: “We do have the baby blimp – it will fly and we’re also thinking about the option of making a bigger baby blimp. Logistics are the only consideration.”

He added: “We are very confident there will be more than a quarter of a million protesters. Trump’s visit last year mobilised a large number of people, but a year later the man has done more to rip up human rights, step back from international norms, continued his climate denialism and fuelled white nationalism.”

Murray conceded that raising money for the bigger blimp “might not be the best use of resources, especially if we are unable to fly it over London”.

Theresa May has been criticised for allowing Donald Trump to make a state visit in June for D-day commemorations, with MPs orchestrating a campaign to stop the US president addressing parliament.

Labour said it “beggars belief” that the government is offering the red-carpet treatment to Trump given his attacks on British and American values. Backbenchers began gathering signatures for a petition aiming to force the cancellation of the trip.

No 10 said the D-day event would be “one of the greatest British military spectacles in recent history” and would include a flypast of 26 types of RAF aircraft and at least 11 Royal Navy ships in the Solent.

The prospect of Trump being granted the honour of a carriage ride down the Mall appalled many MPs. Anti-Trump campaigners called for a protest in London on 4 June.

Asad Rehman, the executive director of War on Want and a member of the Stop Trump Coalition, said the group was preparing for a “huge mobilisation”.

“It will make lots and lots of people very angry. We will be easily expecting way more than the quarter of a million people who turned out last time,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, issued a strongly worded statement against the visit. “It beggars belief that on the very same day Donald Trump is threatening to veto a UN resolution against the use of rape as a weapon of war, Theresa May is pressing ahead with her plans to honour him with a state visit to the UK,” she said.

The Scottish government said in a pointed statement that it had not been consulted about the trip. A spokeswoman added: “We will not compromise our fundamental values of equality, diversity and human rights, and we expect these values to be made clear during the president’s visit to the UK.”

A group of backbench Labour MPs began organising an early day motion calling on May to ask Buckingham Palace to rescind the invitation. The motion said MPs “note previous motions and debates in the house including on the withholding of the honour of a joint address to the houses of parliament; further notes the historical significance and honour that comes with the choice to offer a full state visit to an individual; and calls on the prime minister and the government to rescind the advice to offer a full state visit to President Trump.”

Stephen Doughty, who is gathering signatures, said the invitation was “bonkers” and called Trump a “racist, sexist, extremist” whose presence would deepen divisions in the country.

Another Labour MP, David Lammy, described Trump as “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic” not worthy of the UK’s highest honours or a banquet with the Queen. “Theresa May is selling out the UK to a serial liar and a cheat,” he said.

John Bercow, the Speaker, has previously indicated he would not want to allow Trump to address both houses of parliament, which has happened on previous state visits by foreign leaders.

In February 2017, Bercow said he felt “very strongly that our opposition to racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons”.

Meanwhile, Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the Liberal Democrat leader of Portsmouth city council expressed dismay that Trump’s visit could overshadow the D-day commemorations.

“I am disappointed because it will change the nature of the event a great deal; for us the centre of the events was meant to be the veterans,” he said.