No shit, Sherlock.
As Trump’s state visit looms, Britain seems a reluctant host
www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/as-trumps-state-visit-looms-britain-seems-a-reluctant-
host/2019/06/02/c0378178-83b3-11e9-b585-e36b16a531aa_story.html
LONDON — In Britain, a state visit doesn’t just mean dining with the prime minister, or even tea with the queen. It means an extraordinary level of pomp and pageantry, plus a sleepover at Buckingham Palace.
At least, it normally does.
Britain is gearing up for this week’s state visit by President Trump as only Britain can do. There will be an official greeting ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a lavish banquet with the queen’s best china, a gun salute fired from Green Park and the Tower of London.
It will all be suitably over-the-top.
But there is also a sense that British officials are slightly less than enthusiastic about this particular round of state visit grandeur.
Some of the traditional trappings — such as staying over at Buckingham Palace, a royal welcome at the Horse Guards Parade and a gold carriage procession down the Mall — are notably absent.
“When extending a visit and making those plans concrete, you want to feel excited and joyful at the idea, and I think people have sort of seen it as something they have to get through,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, head of Chatham House’s Americas program.
But she added that there was still intense interest from the British public. “Anytime an American president comes to town it’s exciting, not necessarily for the right reasons, but certainly people are very aware around town, not least because of the traffic jams,” she said, referring to planned mass protests.
The British government, preoccupied with its owndomestic turmoil, has long seemed wary about hosting Trump for a state visit.
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Unlike his predecessor, Trump won’t be staying overnight at Buckingham Palace, the official residence of the queen.
Instead, he will stay at Winfield House, the stately home of U.S. Ambassador Woody Johnson, which has the second-largest gardens in London (after Buckingham Palace). When Trump visited Britain last summer for a more modest working visit, he stayed there as well.
Buckingham Palace is reportedly unable to host the Trumps because of ongoing renovation work that began in 2016. According to the official royal website, Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, including 52 “royal and guest bedrooms.”
Trump is known to hold the queen in high regard. He oncetold the Times of London that his Scottish-born mother “loved the queen … she loved the ceremonial and the beauty, because nobody does that like the English. And she had great respect for the queen.”
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But whatever happens over the next few days, the queen, one expects, will be as inscrutable as ever.
“That’s the queen’s job, dealing with people whether she likes them or not,” said Robert Lacey, a royal biographer, who noted that the queen may not have liked all of13 British prime ministers who have served during her long reign, but she still meets them every week for “audiences” and “treats them with total dignity.”
“The queen has dealt with monsters in her time, from Idi Amin to Robert Mugabe,” he said, “and this is an elected head of state of our most important ally and friend. This is her job.”