Trump will dodge London protests, spending just hours in the capital

HIS visit will have pomp and ceremony, but Donald Trump’s UK tour has little room for the public, especially those pesky protesters.

HE’LL visit a castle, a palace, a lavish country mansion and seems primed to fit in a round of golf in Scotland, but United States President Donald Trump’s trip to the United Kingdom will see him largely dodge London.

As fresh details of Mr Trump’s trip to Europe and the UK emerged, so to did claims he was dodging the British capital to avoid massive protests planned against him.

Mr Trump’s itinerary sees him scheduled to spend four days in the UK.

He will meet British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Queen among others before spending two days in Scotland.

It means he will only spend the night in London, on Thursday, the day of his arrival, staying at the US ambassador’s official residence in Regent’s Park, largely avoiding mass protests planned in the city.

Ms May’s office says Mr Trump arrives on Thursday, July 12, 2018 and will attend a dinner with business leaders at Blenheim Palace, Winston Churchill’s birthplace, near Oxford.

Next day, he’ll meet Ms May at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat in Buckinghamshire, and the Queen at Windsor Castle later on.

Both places will keep him away from the public, and well out of London.

Although administration officials point to the longstanding alliance between the US and the UK, Mr Trump’s itinerary will largely keep him out of central London, where significant protests are expected.

Mr Trump will spend one night in London during his UK visit. Picture: AFP/Jim Watson

The President will have an audience with the Queen at Windsor Castle. Picture: Owen Humphreys/AP

Instead, the black-tie dinner with business leaders, meeting with the PM and audience with Queen Elizabeth II keep him outside the city where London mayor Sadiq Khan has been in a verbal battle with Trump.

US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, said the trip was not planned to avoid the protests. Mr Trump has shown irritation before at protests in the US.

‘TRUMP BABY’

More than 50,000 people have signed up to demonstrate in London against Mr Trump’s perceived racism, sexism, and his treatment of migrants.

But the closest protesters may get to a glimpse of the US leader may be the controversial “Trump baby” protest blimp set to fly above the city.

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan last week gave protesters permission to fly the blimp, which depicts Mr Trump as an orange, snarling baby, over London’s Parliament Square during Mr Trump’s visit. Protesters also need police and air traffic services permission to fly the six-metre balloon.

Mr Trump’s comments on militant attacks in Britain have sparked anger and he has often exchanged barbs on social media with Mr Khan.

Mr Johnson said the President was aware of the planned protests but insisted that Mr Trump “appreciates free speech” in both countries.

The “Trump Baby” blimp protesters want to fly above the British capital. Picture: Supplied

Mr Trump leaves the US on Tuesday on a four-nation tour amid simmering disputes over trade and military spending with fellow Western democracies and speculation about whether he will rebuke or embrace Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He will meet the Russian leader in Helsinki as the finale of a trip.

After meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels, he’ll travel to England, then on to one of his Scottish golf resorts.

‘START PAYING YOUR BILLS’

In the run-up to his trip, the Mr Trump has delivered fresh broadsides against NATO, an intergovernmental military alliance of 29 North American and European countries aimed at countering possible Russian aggression.

“I’ll tell NATO: ‘You’ve got to start paying your bills,”’ Mr Trump pledged at a rally last week in Montana in which he bemoaned that Americans were “the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing.”

At the same time, he declared that “Putin is fine” and that he had been preparing for their summit “all my life”.

Experts fear the trip could produce a repeat of the dynamics from Mr Trump’s last trip abroad, when he admonished Group of Seven allied nations at a summit in Canada before heading to Singapore, where he showered praise on one of America’s longest-standing adversaries, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

Mr Trump is expected to continue to press NATO nations to fulfil their commitments to spend 2 per cent of their gross domestic product on defence by 2024. Mr Trump has argued that countries not paying their fair share are freeloading off the US and has threatened to stop protecting those he feels pay too little.

The G-7 world leaders’ meeting in Canada last month ended in tumult when Mr Trump suddenly retracted his endorsement of the group’s final joint statement after his departure and railed against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Mr Trump sent a midflight tweet branding Mr Trudeau “very dishonest and weak” en route to Singapore for his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a meeting that was lambasted by critics who said it legitimised Mr Kim on the world stage without securing a clear pathway to the denuclearisation.