President Trump was greeted by Britain’s full pomp and pageantry on his historic second state visit to the nation, becoming the only American leader to have been granted the honor twice following his 2019 visit during his first term.
Mr. Trump, accompanied by the first lady, was staying at Windsor Castle on Wednesday night as the official guests of the King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The itinerary of the visit includes a carriage procession through the grounds of the castle with the royal family and political meetings at the British prime minister’s country estate on Thursday, under the protection of thousands of police officers deployed in an intensive security operation.
The carefully choreographed events will be widely broadcast but will take place behind closed doors — and gates — amid an expectation of protests against Mr. Trump and political turbulence on both sides of the Atlantic. A shadow was cast over the trip by last week’s firing of Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, following a political scandal that started with revelations about what he had written in the same birthday book that contained a message seemingly signed in Mr. Trump’s name. White House officials have denied that Mr. Trump created that message.
Officials will be hoping that the gilded spectacle of the royal events will distract from the Epstein scandal, and will present a vision of enduring trans-Atlantic friendship in spite of areas of geopolitical tension.
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