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How can Donald Trump avoid British protesters during two-day UK visit?

US president is so 'unpredictable' he may want to confront the protesters himself, Tony Blair's former media adviser says

Samuel Osborne
Monday 09 July 2018 09:11 BST
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Donald Trump will meet with the Queen and the prime minister, Theresa May, when he visits the UK next week
Donald Trump will meet with the Queen and the prime minister, Theresa May, when he visits the UK next week

Donald Trump will face mass protests when he arrives in the UK next week.

The US president’s itinerary includes a visit to Blenheim Palace, a meeting with the Queen at Windsor Castle and talks with the prime minister, Theresa May, at Chequers, her country estate in Buckinghamshire. He will also travel to his golf courses in Scotland, where his ancestors hail from.

Mr Trump’s plans largely keep him away from London, where the majority of demonstrations will take place. A giant balloon depicting the president as an angry, orange baby will also be flown near Parliament during his visit after more than 10,000 people signed a petition for the inflatable to be given permission to fly.

He will only visit the capital to stay overnight at the home of the US ambassador in the centre of the city.

But how will the former reality TV star achieve the delicate balance of appearing presidential while avoiding “Trump Baby” and those protesting his visit?

Mr Trump may be so “unpredictable” he may want to confront the protesters himself, Lance Price, Tony Blair’s former media adviser at No 10, said.

“He may even want to face them down, stick two fingers up to the protesters,” Mr Price told The Independent.

“I can’t see him wanting to skulk away, to hide away and be seen to be avoiding the challenge the protesters are putting up to him. He doesn’t respond in a conventional fashion to anything, so why would he this time?”

Boris Johnson setting out 3 reasons why he 'admires Trump' at Foreign Office Questions in the House of Commons

Further demonstrations are planned at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, as well as near Chequers.

If Mr Trump hoped to avoid the protesters, Mr Price said, it would be “up to the British to ferry him around in a way that minimises it. That’s certainly been possible in the past.”

He said when China’s president, Xi Jinping, came to the UK, he was able to avoid most of the protests. And other US presidents, “who’ve not been as controversial” as Mr Trump, have managed to avoid protesters “because obviously the government have complete control over how they move the president around and they can always cite security as their reason for doing it.”

Donald Trump's visit to Britain next week will take him to Windsor Castle for an audience with the Queen

Mr Price, who was formerly the communications director for the Labour Party, said he thought Mr Trump would predominantly be flown around by helicopter during his visit. It’s likely he would use the presidential state car, nicknamed “The Beast,” for any other travel.

It’s also unlikely he would be confronted by spontaneous demonstrations, “because every step that a US president takes when on British soil is recced in advance.”

However, even if Mr Trump were able to avoid seeing protesters in person, Mr Price said the president will definitely be aware of the demonstrations against his visit.

“He won’t be able to avoid the protests because the one thing we know about him is that he’s a television addict,” he said. ”So even if he doesn’t see people jeering outside his car he’s going to be very aware of the fact people are protesting in very large numbers.”

It would represent “a victory for the protesters” if the president had to “skulk around and he can’t come into contact with the public at all.”

He added: “If he’s having to be ferried around in secret, by helicopter, without coming into contact with any ordinary British people, then almost by definition the protesters have won.”

A spokeswoman for Ms May said the trip had not been deliberately planned to keep Mr Trump away from protesters and that British people were looking forward to his visit.

Mr Trump's wife, Melania, will have a separate itinerary and will be hosted by Ms May's husband, Philip.

When Mr Trump met Ms May in January last year, the pair were pictured clasping hands as the president walked the prime minister down the steps of a White House colonnade.

Mr Price gave an emphatic “no!” when asked if there would be a repeat of the enduring image.

“But it will be interesting to see what the body language is. Good diplomatic manners mean that she will be welcoming, positive and smiley and all the rest of it, but as ever with absolutely everything, Brexit hangs over it.

“Whatever happens, the relationship with the United States is going to be very important to us post Brexit. And although the signs are not good of a quick and easy trading relationship with the United States, she can’t avoid to do anything that makes that look less likely than it already is.”

The 'Trump baby' balloon will be flown above Parliament Square

The president is also likely to be on his best behaviour when he meets the Queen at Windsor.

“I would have thought he will be totally gracious,” Mr Price said. ”I would be very surprised if that was anything other than the normal ‘polite, pleasant, formal’ encounter.”

He said while the Queen is known to have “strong views that she’s willing to express,” her staff are likely to have told her she “cannot trust this guy,” he said.

“Normally if she does express private views to a head of state those views will remain private, but you can’t be sure that he wouldn’t tweet it five minutes later. ‘The Queen thinks Theresa May is a disaster,” you know, anything like that could happen.

“So everyone will be advising the Queen, the PM, everybody else, to be ultra cautious and to do everything they can to get through the whole thing, which they’d rather wasn’t happening at all, with a minimum of diplomatic disasters.”

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