TIL Desk/World/Washington/ Donald Trump has scrapped plans to visit Britain next month. The US President was expected to make his first trip to the United Kingdom since entering office, but US government officials have been told he has gone cold on the idea. According to reports, concerned about the welcome he would receive in the UK, Trump is understood to be sending US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson instead.
Trump had been due to come to London to open the new £750 million embassy, but was said to have abandoned the idea as he feels unhappy about the scale of the visit and the arrangements made. The US President was not due to meet the Queen until a full state visit at a later date, and a second source said the lack of ‘bells and whistles’ and royal involvement next month visit may have discouraged him.
Trump has previously expressed concern about the likelihood of mass protests. Last year he told May he did not want to go ahead with a visit until the British public supported it. The British Prime Minister and the US President clashed in November when she criticised his decision to re-tweet anti-Muslim propaganda from a far-Right group, Britain First. In a rare public rebuke, she said: “I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do.”
