President Trump is in London Monday, as he kicks off his first official state visit to Britain. There, Mr. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump dined with the queen, had tea with Prince Charles, and attended a state banquet in which both Queen Elizabeth and Mr. Trump delivered speeches.
“As we face the new challenges of the 21st Century, the anniversary of D-Day reminds us of all that our countries have achieved together. After the shared sacrifices of the Second World War, Britain and the United States worked with other allies to build an assembly of international institutions, to ensure that the horrors of conflict would never be repeated,” the queen said.
CBS News will have live, ongoing coverage of Mr. Trump’s state visit, during which he will also hold talks with Prime Minister Theresa May. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump will travel to Ireland to meet Prime Minister Leo Varadkar before attending events to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing in northern France by Allied forces in World War II.
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As CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata reported, thousands protested during Mr. Trump’s last visit to Britain, and similar demonstrations are widely expected this week.
“It’s not just the normal threat of some violence, and you’ve got the assassination risk; it’s also a threat and risk really around protests and the level of that protest,” Richard Walton, the former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, told CBS News about the major security operation rolled out for the U.S. leader’s visit.
Guest list at state banquet includes all of Trump’s adult children
All four of the president’s adult children — Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump attended the state banquet.
Top Trump aide Stephen Miller also attended, along with Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin and Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy. It’s unclear why Ruddy was in attendance.
Trump delivers remarks thanking queen, remembering D-Day
Mr. Trump then stood to give remarks thanking the queen for her hospitality, and remembering the lives lost and freedoms won at D-Day.
“The bond between our nations was forever sealed in that great crusade,” the president said in his speech. “As we honor our shared victory and heritage, we affirm the common values that will unite us long into future. Freedom, sovereignty, self-determination, the rule of law and reference for the rights given to us by almighty god. From the second World War to today, her majesty has stood as a constant symbol of these priceless traditions. She has embodied the spirit of dignity, duty, and patriotism that beats proudly in every British heart.”
Queen delivers speech reminiscent of U.S.-U.K. relationship
Below are the queen’s remarks as prepared. She was 18 years old on D-Day.
Mr. President,
I am delighted to welcome you and Mrs Trump to Buckingham Palace this evening, just twelve months after our first meeting at Windsor Castle. Visits by American Presidents always remind us of the close and longstanding friendship between the United Kingdom and the United States, and I am so glad that we have another opportunity to demonstrate the immense importance that both our countries attach to our relationship.
In the coming days, you will see some of our most treasured historical buildings, speak to the business leaders whose expertise and innovation drive our economies, and meet members of our Armed Services, past and present. You will also travel to Portsmouth and Normandy to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.
On that day – and on many occasions since – the Armed Forces of both our countries fought side-by-side to defend our cherished values of liberty and democracy. Mr President, in your State of the Union Address this year, you paid tribute to some of the American heroes who risked their lives, and we owe an immeasurable debt to the British, American and Allied soldiers who began the liberation of Europe on 6th June 1944.
I paid my first State Visit to your country at the invitation of President Eisenhower. As Supreme Allied Commander, he had ultimate responsibility for the execution of the Normandy landings. In his headquarters in St James’s Square – not far from Buckingham Palace – British and American officers worked closely together to plan the freedom of a continent, and it would be no exaggeration to say that millions of lives depended on their common endeavour.
As we face the new challenges of the Twenty First Century, the anniversary of D-Day reminds us of all that our countries have achieved together. After the shared sacrifices of the Second World War, Britain and the United States worked with other allies to build an assembly of international institutions, to ensure that the horrors of conflict would never be repeated. While the world has changed, we are forever mindful of the original purpose of these structures: nations working together to safeguard a hard won peace.
Of course, it is not only our security which unites us; but our strong cultural links and shared heritage. Every year, there are almost four million visits by Americans to the United Kingdom, with a great number claiming British descent. And with your own Scottish ancestry, Mr President, you too have a particular connection to this country.
We are also bound by the strength and breadth of our economic ties, as the largest investors in each other’s economies. British companies in the United States employ over one million Americans, and the same is true vice versa.
Mr President, as we look to the future, I am confident that our common values and shared interests will continue to unite us. Tonight we celebrate an alliance that has helped to ensure the safety and prosperity of both our peoples for decades, and which I believe will endure for many years to come.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you all to rise and drink a toast to President and Mrs Trump, to the continued friendship between our two nations, and to the health, prosperity and happiness of the people of the United States.
Trump arrives for state banquet
The president and first lady arrived for the state banquet in Marine One Monday. But much of the event will be closed to the press, who have to try to watch through the window, according to a pool reporter.
The first lady is wearing a Dior Haute Couture ivory silk crepe gown, according to her spokesperson. Her hair is pulled back. She walked into the dinner next to Prince Charles of Wales, according to the pool reporter.
Ivanka Trump is also in attendance, as is Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law.
Louise Linton, the actress wife of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, appeared in a burgundy gown with her hair pulled back in a knot.
Trump heads back to Winfield House for down time
Marine One left Buckingham Palace for Winfield House just before noon Eastern time, 5 p.m. local time. Mr. Trump has some down time on his schedule before heading back to Buckingham Palace in the evening for a state banquet and reception.
What is Ivanka Trump doing in the U.K.?
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and top adviser, joined the president’s trip to the U.K. But why is she there?
The White House says she’s a part of the official U.S. delegation, participating in the ceremonial events and also in the business roundtable and bilateral with the prime minister. Ivanka Trump has made a point of focusing on economic development efforts, particularly for women. But her role and fact that she’s the president’s daughter have often drawn intense scrutiny and criticism.
Trump heads to Clarence House for tea
Mr. Trump and the first lady headed to Clarence House for tea and photos with Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
The prince pointed to a few items on the walls of the small reception area, according to the White House press pool. Mr. Trump then greeted the British ambassador to the U.S. The event was very limited, keeping most reporters out of earshot.
Here’s what the queen gave to Trump
In keeping with tradition, the queen gave the president and first lady gifts on Monday.
To the president, she bestowed an abridged first edition of “The Second World War” by Winston Churchill. The book is crimson with gold tooled decoration that covers the outer cover and spine, and inner cover. The endpapers are silk.
To the first lady, the queen gave a specially commissioned silver box with a handcrafted enamel lid.
Trump tours Westminster Abbey
After his greeting with the royal family, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at London’s historic Westminster Abbey where the two are expected to take a tour of the church.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, welcomed the couple inside where they participated in a ceremonial prayer marking the president’s arrival in the U.K. The first lady joined the president in laying a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior inside the Abbey grounds.
The grave marks a body that was brought over from France and buried on November 11, 1920 or Armistice Day in the U.K. — the day a formal agreement was signed between the allied nations and Germany marking the end of World War I.
The grave, which contains soil from France, is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble from a quarry near Namur.
The president and first lady approached the choir and appeared to greet some of the choir members.
At Westminster Abbey, the president signed the guest book.
Trumps review Royal Collection
After lunch, President Trump and the first lady toured the palace’s Royal Collection of art and historic gifts in the grand halls of the Queen’s royal estate. The Trumps were joined by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
The U.S. first couple viewed artifacts from American history, including items from a trip taken by Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, to the U.S., where he met with President Franklin Roosevelt. The Queen also highlighted various paintings of birds native to the United States, including a watercolor of a Bald Eagle.
Remarking on the longstanding U.S-U.K. relationship, the Queen showed the president a copy of the Declaration of Independence as well as paintings of America’s first president, George Washington.
A group nearly 30 people trailed behind the president and Queen including Jared Kusher and Ivanka Trump, Prince Harry, National Security Advisor John Bolton, Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and advisor Kellyanne Conway.
Next, the Trumps will head to London’s Westminster Abbey for a tour and wreath laying at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.
Sadiq Khan releases video slamming Trump
While President Trump participated in his formal greetings with the Royal family, London Mayor Sadiq Khan slammed the president’s rhetoric and policies in a video message.
In partnership with the magazine Elle U.K., Khan, in his video message, directly addresses Mr. Trump on the topic of abortion.
“What you’ve seen in the U.S.A. in the last few years is a rolling back” of both the “progress” made in previous decades in the U.S. and “of the reproductive rights of women in the U.S.,” Khan said.
Khan cited the Trump administration’s efforts to cut down on women’s access to reproductive health care, saying, “we can’t afford to see is a return to the situation in yester-decades where you had women having no control over their bodies.”
Trump takes in military parade
President Trump and Prince Charles toured the grounds of the palatial Buckingham Palace shortly after their private welcome ceremony. First Lady Melania Trump, Camila, Duchess of Cornwall and Queen Elizabeth II stood watching from the palace grounds.
The Grenadier Guards, adorned in their traditional uniforms and black bearskin hats, offered a marching salute in the Buckingham Palace Garden. Onlookers included White House advisers Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner as well as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Kellyanne Conway, Dan Scavino, and Steven Miller.
The president was seen making conversation with guardsmen during his tour of the grounds.
He’ll have a private lunch with the Queen and members of the Royal family including her grandson, Prince Harry, are expected to attend. Harry’s wife, the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, will not be there since she is on maternity leave.
Royal greeting
President and First Lady Trump arrived Monday at Buckingham Palace for an official welcome ceremony. The first couple was greeted on the palace grounds by Queen Elizabeth II’s son, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
As cannons fired a royal salute, Prince Charles and Camilla shook hands and exchanged a few words with Mr. and Mrs. Trump.
The Royal Salute saw dozens of artillery rounds fired off at both the Tower of London and in central London’s Green Park — to mark both President Trump’s visit and the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, which was on Sunday.
Prince Charles and Camilla then escorted the Trumps into the palace to meet the monarch privately.
Controversy over U.K. politics
As CBS News’ Paula Reid reports, there are protests planned across Britain during Mr. Trump’s visit, but the controversy started even before he left the U.S. He’s feuding with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and he has referred to the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, as “nasty.” He has also been accused of getting too involved in the U.K.’s domestic political turmoil.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan recently that he didn’t believe the Markle scandal would spoil Mr. Trump’s visit, given the decades of close ties.
“It doesn’t affect the fact that we have the most important partnership that there is in the world for freedom, democracy,” Hunt told Brennan.
But Mr. Trump’s willingness to wade straight into the most divisive British politics in decades may prove more controversial. The president will meet Tuesday with beleaguered Prime Minister Theresa May, who is set to resign on Friday over her failure to extricate Britain from the European Union three years after the public referendum vote to “Brexit.”
“They want to do trade with the United States and I think there’s an opportunity for a very big trade deal at some point in the near future,” Mr. Trump said before leaving Washington. But he also offered unsolicited advice to May’s successor — and had words of support for hardline Brexit supporter Boris Johnson.
In an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times, Mr. Trump said the U.K. should “walk away from Brexit talks” if the European Union doesn’t give it what it wants. When asked if he should be adding his input to the raucous British debate, the president retorted, “Don’t ask me the question if you don’t want me to talk about it.”
Even more thorny than his backing of Boris Johnson could be the trade deal Mr. Trump wants to negotiate with Britain — and what his administration demands during those negotiations. The U.K.’s scheduled departure from the EU may leave it free to strike its own unilateral trade deals around the world, but it will also leave it without the huge collective bargaining power of membership in the 28-nation trade bloc.
To strike a trade deal with the much larger U.S., the Trump administration has indicated that Britain may be asked to open its cherished national health care system, the NHS, up to American investors. The concept is hugely controversial, and opposition Labour Party lawmakers were quick to point to Ambassador Woody Johnson’s remarks as evidence that the Conservative-led government was willing to “sell” Britain’s social healthcare system.
Johnson told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that, “in a trade deal, all things that are traded would be on the table.” Asked by the host if that specifically meant healthcare, Johnson replied: “I would think so.”
Johnson also appeared to confirm fears among some Britons that in order to strike a deal with the U.S., post-Brexit Britain might need to lower some of the food safety standards in place under EU law, which ban genetically modified organisms and some pesticides and practices used in U.S. agriculture and food production.
“There will have to be some deal where you give the British people a choice,” he told Marr’s audience. “American products can come over and be allowed to come over. Agriculture is extremely important to the president and to any American president … but if the British people like it, they can buy it, if they don’t like it, they don’t have to buy it.”
Trump and the Duchess
Just days before Mr. Trump’s arrival, he was quoted by British tabloid newspaper The Sun as saying of Meghan Markle, “I didn’t know she was nasty.”
The Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry’s wife and the first American to become a member of Britain’s royal family, has reportedly declined to meet Mr. Trump while he he is in the U.K. She just became a mother and reportedly cited that as her reason, but she has expressed negative opinions of Mr. Trump previously, calling him “divisive” and a “misogynist.”
Mr. Trump later denied in a tweet every leveling the criticism of Meghan, saying: “I never called Meghan Markle ‘nasty’… Made up by the Fake News Media, and they got caught cold!”
But that prompted The Sun to release an audio recording of its interview with Mr. Trump, in which he can be heard saying: “What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty,” before going on to say he was glad she had married into the royal family and thought she would do “excellently” at her new role.
Heading for a royal lunch
President Trump and the First Lady climbed down the steps of Air Force One and shook hands with U.S. and British officials on the tarmac at Stansted Airport before boarding the Marine One helicopter for the short ride into central London.
After a brief rest at Winfield House, the U.S. ambassador’s official residence in London, the Trumps will head to nearby Buckingham Palace for a ceremonial welcoming and then have lunch with Queen Elizabeth II.
The president and the monarch will then have a formal exchange of gifts before Mr. Trump leaves Buckingham Palace for tea with the queen’s son and direct heir, Charles, Prince of Wales.
Later on Monday the president was to lay a wreath at the grave of the Unknown Warrior and tour London’s ancient Westminster Abbey before an evening banquet back at Buckingham Palace with the queen.
Trump bashes London mayor
President Trump took to Twitter upon his arrival at Stansted Airport, outside London, even before he touched the tarmac to bash the British capital’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has criticized him in the past.
Mr. Trump, with a slight nod at another controversy around his visit, said Khan, “who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly ‘nasty’ to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London.”
Mr. Trump was annoyed ahead of his first visit to Britain when Khan’s office issued a permit for protesters to fly a massive balloon, depicting the U.S. president as a diaper-clad angry baby. This week’s state visit is expected to see the “Trump Baby” balloon — if not more than one — fly again.
Khan has voiced his opposition to Britain granting Mr. Trump an official state visit, saying the U.K. should not “roll out the red carpet” for the U.S. president.
Mr. Trump has often pointed to increase in stabbing attacks in London to criticize Khan. While there has been a spate of violent crime in the British capital, many attribute that at least in part to the Conservative central government’s “austerity” measures of recent years, which have seen many community programs and centers shut down and put huge strain on police resources across the country.
A spokesman for Khan told Britain’s PA news wire on Monday: “This is much more serious than childish insults which should be beneath the President of the United States. Sadiq is representing the progressive values of London and our country, warning that Donald Trump is the most egregious example of a growing far-right threat around the globe, which is putting at risk the basic values that have defined our liberal democracies for more than 70 years.”
