President Donald Trump met with Queen Elizabeth II Monday during a three-day visit to Britain meant to strengthen ties between the two nations, although the trip was immediately at risk of being overshadowed by the London mayor’s feud with Trump.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump flew to Buckingham Palace in Marine One, landing on a lawn where they were greeted by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla. They received a royal gun salute as they walked to the palace where the queen greeted the president with a smile.
But when Air Force One touched down north of London, Trump unleashed a Twitter attack against London Mayor Sadiq Khan, leader of the world city where Trump will stay for two nights while partaking in a state visit full of pomp and circumstance.
The move came after a newspaper column in which Khan said Trump did not deserve red-carpet treatment in Britain and was “one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat” to liberal democracy.
Trump responded —
….Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
It wasn’t all politics. Trump also extended thanks to the United Kingdom —
Thank you! 🇺🇸🇬🇧 https://t.co/hm6RXLeWpp
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
The Trumps then boarded Marine One, the presidential helicopter, for the trip from Stansted Airport to the center of Britain’s capital.
The agenda for Trump’s weeklong journey is mostly ceremonial: a state visit and the audience with the queen, D-Day commemoration ceremonies on both sides of the English Channel and his first presidential visit to Ireland.
During the Buckingham Palace welcome ceremony, Trump and Prince Charles inspected the Guard of Honor formed by the Grenadier Guards wearing the traditional bearskin hats. Royal gun salutes were fired Monday from nearby Green Park and from the Tower of London as part of the pageantry accompanying an official state visit, one of the highest honors Britain can bestow on a foreign leader.
But the U.S. president arrived at a precarious moment. British Prime Minister Theresa May has faced months of political turmoil over Brexit and French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to use the 75th anniversary of the World War II battle that turned the tide on the Western Front to criticize the U.S. president.
A year ago, Trump took aim at his hosts before landing on English soil, blasting May in an interview hours before she hosted him for dinner. Though he has spared May so far this time, he has praised her rival, prime ministerial hopeful Boris Johnson, just days before May steps down as Conservative leader on Friday for failing to secure a Brexit deal.
“I think Boris would do a very good job. I think he would be excellent,” Trump told The Sun. “I like him. I have always liked him. I don’t know that he is going to be chosen, but I think he is a very good guy, a very talented person.”
It was not clear if the Trump endorsement would hurt or help Johnson’s chances of becoming Britain’s next leader. Trump said he may also meet with Johnson this week.
Trump also told The Sunday Times that Britain should “walk away” from Brexit talks and refuse to pay a $49 billion divorce bill if it doesn’t get better terms from the European Union. He said he might meet with another pro-Brexit politician, Nigel Farage, and claimed Farage should be given a role in the Brexit negotiations.
After lunch with the queen, Trump will be honored at an extravagant state dinner at Buckingham Palace.
In an interview with The Sun, Trump weighed in on the American-born Duchess of Sussex. The former Meghan Markle, who gave birth to a son in May and will not attend the week’s events, was critical of Trump in the past, prompting the president to tell the tabloid, “I didn’t know that she was nasty.”
Trump clarified that he thought Markle would be “very good” as a royal and claimed he only meant her comments were “nasty.”
The centerpiece of the president’s visit will be two days to mark the 75th anniversary of the June 6, 1944, D-Day anniversary, likely the last significant commemoration most veterans of the battle will see. The anniversary events will begin in Portsmouth, England, where the invasion was launched, and then move to Normandy, France, where Allied forces began to recapture Western Europe from the Nazis.
The Associated Press contributed to this article