{"id":230833,"date":"2025-09-16T07:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T07:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230833\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T07:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T07:47:11","slug":"trump-flies-in-for-a-uk-state-visit-where-trade-and-tech-talks-mix-with-royal-pomp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230833\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump flies in for a UK state visit where trade and tech talks mix with royal pomp"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> arrives in the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit<\/a> during which the British government hopes a multibillion-dollar technology deal will show the transatlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine<\/a>, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance.<\/p>\n

State visits in Britain blend 21st-century diplomacy with royal pageantry. Trump\u2019s two-day trip comes complete with horse-drawn carriages, military honor guards and a glittering banquet inside a 1,000-year-old castle \u2014 all tailored to a president with a fondness for gilded splendor.<\/p>\n

King Charles III will host Trump<\/a> at Windsor Castle before the president holds talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> at Chequers, the British leader\u2019s rural retreat.<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s office said the visit will demonstrate that \u201cthe U.K.-U.S. relationship is the strongest in the world, built on 250 years of history\u201d \u2014 after that awkward rupture in 1776 \u2014 and bound by shared values of \u201cbelief in the rule of law and open markets.\u201d There was no mention of Trump\u2019s market-crimping fondness for sweeping tariffs.<\/p>\n

The White House expects the two countries will strengthen their relationship during the trip as well as celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, according to a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not clear how the U.K. was planning to mark that chapter in their shared history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trip to the U.K. is going to be incredible,\u201d Trump told reporters on Sunday. He said Windsor Castle is \u201csupposed to be amazing\u201d and added: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s second state visit<\/p>\n

Trump is the first U.S. president to get a second state visit<\/a> to the U.K. <\/p>\n

The unprecedented nature of the invitation, along with the expectation of lavish pomp and pageantry, holds dual appeal to Trump. The president has glowingly praised the king\u2019s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and spoken about how his own Scotland-born mother loved the queen and the monarchy.<\/p>\n

The president is also royally flattered by exceptional attention and has embraced the grandeur of his office in his second term. He has adorned the normally more austere Oval Office with gold accents, is constructing an expansive ballroom<\/a> at the White House and has sought to refurbish other Washington buildings to his liking.<\/p>\n

Foreign officials have shown they\u2019re attuned to his tastes. During a visit to the Middle East this year, leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar didn\u2019t just roll out a red carpet but dispatched fighter jets to escort Trump\u2019s plane.<\/p>\n

Starmer has already shown he\u2019s adept at charming Trump. Visiting Washington in February, he noted the president\u2019s Oval Office decorating choices and decision to display a bust of Winston Churchill. During Trump\u2019s private trip to Scotland in July, Starmer visited and praised Trump\u2019s golf courses.<\/p>\n

Efforts to woo the president make some members of Starmer\u2019s Labour Party uneasy, and Trump will not address Parliament during his visit, like French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> did in July. Lawmakers will be on their annual autumn recess, sparing the government an awkward decision.<\/p>\n

The itinerary in Windsor and at Chequers, both well outside London, also keeps Trump away from a planned mass protest against his visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis visit is really important to Keir Starmer to show that he\u2019s a statesman,\u201d said Leslie Vinjamuri, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. \u201cBut it\u2019s such a double-edged sword, because he\u2019s going to be a statesman alongside a U.S. president that is not popular in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Troubles for Starmer<\/p>\n

Preparations for the visit have been ruffled by political turmoil in Starmer\u2019s center-left government. Last week, Starmer sacked Britain\u2019s ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Mandelson had good relations with the Trump administration and played a key role in securing a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement in May. His firing has put Epstein back in British headlines as Trump tries to swerve questions about his own relationship with the disgraced financier.<\/p>\n

Mandelson\u2019s exit came just a week after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner<\/a> quit over a tax error on a home purchase. Fourteen months after winning a landslide election victory, Starmer\u2019s position is fragile and his poll ratings are in the dumps.<\/p>\n

But he has found a somewhat unexpected supporter in Trump, who in June said that Starmer is a friend, despite being \u201cslightly more liberal than I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s government has cultivated that warmth and tried to use it to get favorable trade terms with the U.S., the U.K.\u2019s largest single economic partner, accounting for 18% of total British trade.<\/p>\n

The May trade agreement reduces U.S. tariffs on Britain\u2019s key auto and aerospace industries. But a final deal has not been reached over other sectors, including pharmaceuticals, steel and aluminum.<\/p>\n

Labour lawmaker Liam Byrne, who heads the House of Commons\u2019 Business and Trade Committee, said it\u2019s vital \u201cto turn paper promises into a binding bargain that ends the tariff tempest that is battering British exporters and investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are expected to be among the business leaders in the U.S. delegation. Trump and Starmer are set to sign a technology partnership \u2013 which Mandelson was key to striking \u2013 accompanied by major investments in nuclear energy, life sciences and Artificial Intelligence data centers.<\/p>\n

Vinjamuri said the tech announcement is critical for Starmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a government that wants to be able to project more growth, more productivity, and that has really struggled to do so,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The leaders are also expected to sign nuclear energy deals, expand cooperation in regards to their nations\u2019 defense technology and explore ways to bolster ties between their financial hubs, according to the White House official.<\/p>\n

Ukraine on the agenda<\/p>\n

Starmer has also tried to use his influence to maintain U.S. support for Ukraine, with limited results. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has not made good on threats to impose new sanctions on Russia for shunning peace negotiations. <\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s Russian drone incursion into NATO member Poland<\/a> drew strong condemnation from European NATO allies, and pledges of more planes and troops for the bloc\u2019s eastern flank. Trump played down the incident\u2019s severity, musing that it \u201c could have been a mistake.<\/a> \u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer also departs from Trump over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, and has said the U.K. will formally recognize a Palestinian state<\/a> at the United Nations later this month.<\/p>\n

Vinjamuri said Starmer \u201chas kept the United States speaking the right language\u201d on Ukraine, but has had little impact on Trump\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn China, on India, on Israel and Gaza and Hamas, and on Vladimir Putin \u2013 on the really big important things \u2013 the U.K. hasn\u2019t had a huge amount of influence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump arrives in the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[124445,7838,69,8703,10102,57,13790,15053,2010,17723,45981,124446,124444,50,147,55405,45805,80,45806,45980,923,376,4338,67,370,132,68,274,93,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-230833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-angela-rayner","10":"tag-diplomacy","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-energy-industry","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-international-trade","16":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","17":"tag-jensen-huang","18":"tag-keir-starmer","19":"tag-king-charles-iii","20":"tag-leslie-vinjamuri","21":"tag-liam-byrne","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-nvidia-corp","24":"tag-openai-inc","25":"tag-peter-mandelson","26":"tag-politics","27":"tag-queen-elizabeth-ii","28":"tag-royalty","29":"tag-sam-altman","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-united-kingdom-government","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-united-states-government","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-us","36":"tag-vladimir-putin","37":"tag-washington-news","38":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}