Thousands of people are set to take to the streets in Central London and Windsor
A ‘Stop Trump’ demonstration is set to shut down the streets of Central London in opposition to the US President’s state visit. Donald Trump will meet the King at Windsor Castle on Wednesday for a lavish state banquet before holding trade talks with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. It is speculated Mr Trump will land at in the UK on Tuesday evening and stay overnight at the US ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park.
Asked what he hoped to achieve during the visit, Mr Trump told reporters: “My relationship is very good with the UK, and Charles, as you know, who’s now King, is my friend. It’s the first time this has ever happened where somebody was honoured twice. So, it’s a great honour. And this one’s at Windsor.
“They’ve never used Windsor Castle for this before. They use Buckingham Palace. And I don’t want to say one’s better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate, right? So it’s going to be nice.” Researcher and political commentator Zoe Gardner and comedian Nish Kumar are among the Londoners who have organised the march against him.
Protest march route in full
The protest will kick off near the BBC’s offices in Portland Place at 2pm. Marchers will then make their way along Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus and then amble east to Whitehall before finishing up in Parliament Square.
Nish Kumar will host the march, while political activist Femi Oluwole is set to speak at the demonstration.
Explaining behind the march, organiser Zoe Gardner told the Indy: “We know that roughly 70 per cent of the country dislike Donald Trump, and I think that there is a huge amount of opposition to Keir Starmer’s approach of sucking up to him.
“There’s a huge amount of opposition to honouring him a second unprecedented state visit banquet with the King. The thought of him feasting on swan steak and caviar while Palestinians are starving to death is a moral outrage”
She claims the US President “represents everything this country stands against and should stand against.” There will also be a demonstration in Windsor on Tuesday evening where Mr Trump is meeting the King.
Why is Trump visiting the UK?
The US president said he is “into helping” Britain on fine-tuning the UK-US trade deal, as the Government seeks to eliminate tariffs on British steel imports to the US. Both countries signed a trade deal in June that reduced tariffs on car and aerospace imports to the US, but failed to agree on terms for British steel, leaving tariffs on it at 25 per cent.
Mr Trump said: “I’m there also on trade. They want to see if they can refine the trade deal a little bit. We’ve made a deal, and it’s a great deal, and I’m into helping them.
“Our country is doing very well. We’ve never done this well. We’re having trillions of dollars come in because of the tariffs. They’d like to see if they could get a little bit better deal. So, we’ll talk to them.”
Over the weekend, Liam Byrne, the Labour chairman of the Commons Business and Trade Committee, said the state visit is “no mere pageant” and warned the Government that “we can’t escape the truth that Britain now trades with its biggest partner on terms that are worse than the past”.
The trip is Mr Trump’s second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented gesture for a US president – with his last one six years ago in 2019 seeing thousands of people turn out on the streets in London in opposition and a 20 foot Trump baby blimp take to the skies.
Mr Trump and Sir Keir will look to highlight the new nuclear partnership aimed at speeding up the development of power plants in Britain.
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