Grand Welcome and Demonstrations Mark Donald Trump's UK State Visit

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Key Points

Donald Trump has started a historic second UK state visit with grandeur, security and royal pageantry.
The day concluded with a lavish banquet, but protests and questions about ties to Jeffrey Epstein hang over the visit.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hoping the royals can cajole Trump into further progress on trade.

US President Donald Trump has kicked off his historic second state visit to the United Kingdom amid unprecedented pomp, intense security, technology investments and protests as King Charles and other royals welcomed their country’s closest ally.

Trump and his wife Melania are being hosted by the King at Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and family home to British monarchs for almost 1,000 years, where he is being treated to the full array of pageantry from a carriage procession to a lavish banquet.

Events from day one are concluding with an opulent state banquet featuring speeches from both the King and the president.

The UK laid on what it said was the largest military ceremonial welcome for a state visit in living memory and Trump, an overt royal fan, has made little secret of his delight at being not just the first US leader but the first elected politician to be invited for two state visits.

“It’s a very special place,” Trump said, adding that he loved the UK.

Two large rows of people seated on either side of a large banquet table.

The first day of Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK concludes with a banquet at Windsor Castle. Source: AAP / PA / Phil Noble

UK prime minister hoping to sway Trump on visit

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hoping to use that sentiment to the UK’s advantage as his government seeks to use the trip to cement the two countries’ “special relationship,” deepen economic ties, secure billions of dollars of investment, discuss tariffs and press Trump on Ukraine and Israel.

Companies including Microsoft, Nvidia, Google and OpenAI have already pledged 31 billion pounds ($63 billion) in UK investments over the next few years in AI, quantum computing and civil nuclear energy.

Starmer also wants further progress on trade after the UK secured the first deal with Trump to lower some tariffs.

“They want to see if they can refine the trade deal a little bit,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Donald Trump walking down a gilded hall alongside King Charles, talking and gesticulating.

Donald Trump (left) has been treated to a show of royal pageantry by King Charles and Queen Camilla. Source: AAP / AP / Kevin Lamarque

But while Starmer is banking on the royals to help cajole the Anglophile president, whose mother came from Scotland, many pitfalls for the UK’s prime minister remain.

How popular is Donald Trump in the UK?

Polls suggest Trump is unpopular in the UK and Starmer, faced with plummeting poll ratings of his own and economic woes, will need to show that his royal trump card can reap benefits.

Awkward questions about late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein could also come to the fore.

Last week, Starmer sacked Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to Washington DC over his ties to Epstein, which could lead to questions for both the prime minister and Trump, whose own relationship with the financier has also come under scrutiny.

While there was a massive security operation in place in Windsor, police said four people had been arrested on Tuesday after images of Trump alongside Epstein were projected onto one of the castle’s towers.

A large crowd of protesters, one of whom is holding up a balloon that resembles Donald Trump.

Protesters in London demonstrated against Donald Trump’s visit to the UK. Source: AAP / EPA / Tolga Akmen

Trump was not there at the time.

Crowds of Trump supporters gathered in Windsor but in London thousands marched to protest against the state visit.

“I quite simply dislike everything that Trump and his administration represent around the globe,” retiree Bryan Murray said.

A man wearing a blue coat plays guitar and sings into a microphone.

Musician Billy Bragg performed at a protest. Source: AAP / PA / James Manning

Trump and Melania joined Charles, his wife Queen Camilla and other royals and dignitaries for a carriage procession on Wednesday, with the route lined by 1,300 UK service personnel.

The president, occasionally chatting and smiling with the King, then inspected a guard of soldiers who wore scarlet uniforms and bearskin hats.

Later, the Trumps viewed historical items from the Royal Collection relating to the United States.

Donald Trump and King Charles seated at an elegant table, talking to each other.

Donald Trump will spend three days in the UK for the visit. Source: AAP / AP / Yui Mok

The president was shown a letter sent from president Abraham Lincoln to Queen Victoria in 1862 expressing his condolences after the death of Prince Albert, which was described as a “defining moment” in the special relationship between the UK and the US.

Trump remarked “that is so amazing, that’s the real deal” and leaned forward to have a closer look.

The US president and his wife then visited St George’s Chapel, the final resting place of Queen Elizabeth, who hosted Trump for his first state visit in 2019, to lay a wreath on her tomb.

She died in September 2022.

Trump meets ‘very handsome’ Prince William

There was a further military parade and a flypast by the UK Red Arrows aerobatics team.

Aeroplanes fly in the sky, letting out red, white and blue smoke.

The UK laid on what it said was the largest military ceremonial welcome for a state visit in living memory. Source: AAP / PA / Jordan Pettitt

The Trumps also found time for a private meeting with the King’s “very handsome” elder son Prince William — as the president has called him — and the heir’s wife Kate, which was described by the prince’s spokesperson as “warm and friendly”.