By Editor,Mark Duell,Rebecca English
Copyright dailymail
Donald Trump bid farewell to the Royal Family at Windsor Castle this morning before heading for talks with Sir Keir Starmer at his grace and favour country home. King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted the Trumps overnight at the Berkshire castle, where they stayed in a ‘spectacular room with the most spectacular views’.
As Mr Trump posed for photographs with the monarch today, he pointed at Charles and said: ‘Thank you very much everyone. He’s a great gentleman and a great king.’ Although brief, the royal segment of Mr Trump’s state visit has been viewed as a crucial precursor to important trade and military negotiations taking place today. One diplomatic source told the Daily Mail: ‘I think we can safely say it’s been a triumph.’ This morning, the Windsor Castle detachment of The King’s Guard was turned out in the castle Quadrangle in a final show of pomp and pageantry. However while her husband departed, the First Lady stayed on by herself for another couple of hours.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister will step up his campaign to woo the US President at Chequers in Buckinghamshire during an unprecedented second state visit to Britain. Sir Keir is trying to keep the focus of the visit by Mr Trump and his wife Melania on an influx of American investment into the UK amid a royal charm offensive. But it comes while both his Government and the Trump administration are plagued by ongoing scandals related to the financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Mrs Trump remained at the castle this morning where Camilla gave her a tour of its royal library and the Queen Mary ‘s Dolls’ House, reputedly the world’s largest. Built between 1921 and 1924 for Queen Mary, consort of King George V, by the leading British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, it contains tiny works from over 1,500 of the finest artists, craftspeople and manufacturers of the early 20th century. Mrs Trump will also join the Princess of Wales later today for a fun final engagement with the Scouts’ Squirrels programme in Frogmore Gardens. Overnight, Sir Keir announced the prospect of some £150billion flowing into the UK from big US companies such as Blackstone and Palantir.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will host a business reception in Downing Street for bosses at top US and UK financial firms, including BlackRock, Barclays and Blackstone in a bid to highlight transatlantic economic cooperation. As Sir Keir and Mr Trump meet at Chequers, they also plan to sign a technology prosperity deal, touted as offering major investment by US tech firms in Britain, that will help to develop its AI capabilities. The Prime Minister will present the US leader with a bespoke ministerial red box styled to take back to the White House, as well as showing him items from the Churchill archives. The two men will also meet investors including bosses from GSK, Microsoft and Rolls-Royce while Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also have face-to-face talks at Chequers.
Questions have, however, begun to arise over what American companies may want in return, with suggestions a tax on digital services – which largely impacts on US companies – could be reduced or eliminated. Hopes that a deal aimed at reducing steel tariffs on British imports to the US could be hammered out during the state visit, meanwhile, appear to have fallen by the wayside. This morning, a Treasury minister insisted the Government was ‘standing up for British industry’ as he faced questions about the shelving of plans to eliminate US tariffs on UK steel. Asked whether hopes had been abandoned of securing the reduction in the levy, which stands at 25 per cent, Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray told Sky News: ‘Let me put it in context, because we’re obviously the only country to avoid the 50 per cent tariffs and that’s as a result of the deal that the Prime Minister struck with President Trump.’
It was put to him that the tariffs were higher than they were a year ago, to which he responded: ‘We’re standing up for British industry and the context is the 50 per cent tariffs and were the only country to avoid them.’ He said the ‘national interest will drive the Prime Minister’ at ‘every turn.’ Later, this afternoon’s press conference with the two leaders could prove to be the moment of most jeopardy for ensuring the state visit concludes smoothly, as questions about Lord Peter Mandelson and Mr Trump’s links to the late Epstein will likely arise. Differences of opinion over the situation in the Middle East may also prove difficult for the two men.
Sir Keir has delayed his plans to recognise a Palestinian state until after Mr Trump’s visit concludes to avoid open disagreement over the matter, the Times reported. Last night, President Trump paid a heartfelt tribute to America’s relationship with the UK saying the word ‘special does not begin to do it justice’. The US leader also heaped praise on the King describing his as a ‘very, very special man’, listing a catalogue of his passions from the environment to architecture during a banquet staged in his honour to mark Mr Trump’s second historic state visit. He singled out Charles’s ‘really amazing’ son and heir the Prince of Wales for a mention and the ‘beautiful’ Princess of Wales sitting next to the president.
Mr Trump told the guests, who included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, gathered in Windsor Castle’s St George’s Hall: ‘Seen from American eyes the word special does not begin to do it justice.’ He went on to say: ‘We’re joined by history and faith, by love and language and by transcendent ties of culture, tradition, ancestry and destiny. We’re like two notes in one chord or two verses of the same poem, each beautiful on its own, but really meant to be played together. The bond of kinship and identity between America and the United Kingdom is priceless and eternal.’ A series of welcomes, poignant moments and spectacular ceremonial displays were held for the President and First Lady during the opening day of the state visit as the Royal Family used its ‘soft diplomacy’ to strengthen the UK’s ties with one of its most enduring allies.
William and Kate were deployed at the start of the royal charm offensive to greet the Trumps first when they arrived at Windsor Castle by helicopter. And around 1,500 troops in total were involved in ceremonial military events throughout the day – almost double those on duty for the recent state visit of France’s President Emmanuel Macron. The US leader had an affinity with Queen Elizabeth II, who hosted his first state visit, and during the afternoon he laid a wreath at her tomb in the castle’s St George’s Chapel joined by the First Lady. In his speech Mr Trump described his second state visit to the UK as a ‘singular privilege’ adding later ‘but this is truly one of the highest honours of my life, such respect for you and such respect for your country’.
The president’s words were echoed by Charles, who said: ‘This unique and important occasion reflects the enduring bond between our two great nations. ‘Anchored by the deep friendship between our people, this relationship which, with good reason, we and our predecessors have long called ‘special’, has made us safer and stronger through the generations.’ The King also spoke of the ‘enduring bond between our two great nations’ that has been ‘long called ‘special” and went on to describe how it grew from two sworn enemies fighting against each other in the American Revolutionary War. ‘Today, however, we celebrate a relationship between our two countries that surely neither Washington nor King George III could possibly have imagined. ‘The ocean may still divide us, but in so many ways we are now the closest of kin.’
Charles delivered the first address of the evening and praised president’s ‘… own personal commitment to finding solutions to some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, in order to secure peace’. Since being elected to office Mr Trump has sought to be known as a peacemaker and made no secret of the fact that he covets a Nobel prize. Charles highlighted his long-held concerns about the environment as he spoke beside the President who in the past has branded climate change a ‘Chinese hoax’ and announced his decision to withdraw America from the Paris climate agreement at the start of his first term in 2017. The King said: ‘Our legacy for the next 250 years and beyond is to ensure that our children, grandchildren and those who come after them, can experience the awe and magnificence of the natural treasures found in the countryside, on the coasts, in the seas and in the national parks established by your predecessors and mine.’ The President’s love of golf is well known, with the US leader opening a new golf course in Aberdeenshire in July, and among the banquet guests was his golf buddy and six-times former major champion golfer Sir Nick Faldo.
Charles joked: ‘Mr President, you have spoken of your pride in your British roots. In fact, not only have you set foot on British soil twice in the last two months alone, but I understand British soil makes for rather splendid golf courses.’ There were no public-facing elements during Mr Trump’s engagements, with security paramount for the 47th US president – who has faced two assassination attempts in just over a year – in the wake of the killing of his ally Charlie Kirk. In central London thousands marched in protest against the US leader’s second state visit. Some protesters held banners which read: ‘No to the racism, no to Trump’, while others carried smaller versions of the Trump baby blimp, a 20ft iteration which became a symbol of demonstration during the president’s first UK state visit in 2019.
Meanwhile four men who were arrested after images of Mr Trump with Epstein were projected on to Windsor Castle have been bailed, police said. A 60-year-old man from East Sussex, a 36-year-old man from London, a 37-year-old man from Kent and a 50-year-old man from London were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications on Tuesday night after the stunt. They were released on conditional bail last night until December 12 while inquiries continue, according to Thames Valley Police. ‘Those arrested are being investigated for a number of possible offences including malicious communications and public nuisance,’ a spokesperson for the force said. The nine-minute film created by British political campaign group Led By Donkeys went over the history of the US president’s links to Epstein, including the recent release by US legislators of documents said to include a letter from Mr Trump to the financier to celebrate his 50th birthday.
The film was projected from a hotel room with a direct view over the castle as an act of ‘peaceful protest’, a spokesperson for the campaign group said. They added: ‘My colleagues were arrested for malicious communications, which seems ridiculous, because we’ve done 25 or 30 projections before, no-one’s ever been arrested. ‘So suddenly, because it’s Trump, you get this reaction, which is surprising, disappointing and very heavy-handed from police. I think they’ve been arrested for embarrassing Donald Trump.’ In Scotland today, a senior member of the Scottish Cabinet defended John Swinney’s attendance at last night’s state banquet. Justice Secretary Angela Constance insisted people would expect the First Minister to ‘be representing Scotland at an international level’.
Her comments came in the wake of a social media post from SNP MP Chris Law – which has now been deleted – which said those attending the banquet yesterday would be ‘conceding that it’s acceptable to support genocide in Gaza’. That came after a group of three independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council concluded Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory. Ms Constance said she does not know why SNP colleague Mr Law had posted such a comment, saying her focus this week had been on steering ‘historic’ reforms to Scotland’s justice system through Holyrood. ‘With the greatest respect I have not been glued to social media,’ she told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme today. The Scottish Government’s position on the suffering, the genocide in Gaza is very, very clear and we are playing our part to step up, call for justice, call for an end to that suffering and doing practical endeavours.’
She added it was ‘only this week we are seeing those that have been hurt and injured coming to Scotland’ – with two children injured in the conflict travelling to the country for treatment, along with their families. Ms Constance added: ‘People in Scotland also expect our First Minister to be representing Scotland at an international level, that is in the interests of all us.
