Donald Trump Is In The UK And No One Is Happy About It

This weekend was never going to go well, but no one could have predicted quite how explosive it would be. In what many have labelled a “disrespectful” interview with the British press yesterday, Trump was extremely critical of May’s Brexit deal, warning her that her current plan could “kill” any trade deals between the US and the UK, essentially forcing the PM to choose between what the Metro calls “its historic American ally or closest European leaders”.

When it comes to Brexit, Trump said he had some ideas of his own on how it should play out, and had told May how to cut a good deal, but, “she didn’t agree, she didn’t listen to me.” He added: “I told her how to do it. That will be up to her to say. But I told her how to do it. She wanted to go a different route.”

He also took aim at Sadiq Khan – who he has a long-standing feud with – claiming the London Mayor had done a “bad job” on counter-terrorism and said there had been too much immigration from Europe. In typical Trump fashion, he mused: “I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad… Take a look at the terrorism that is taking place. Look at what is going on in London. I think he has done a very bad job on terrorism. I think he has done a bad job on crime, if you look, all of the horrible things going on there, with all of the crime that is being brought in.”

As was to be expected, many MPs have been hit out at Trump’s visit and his comments. Former Labour leader Ed Milliband tweeted a link to a story about Trump’s comments and added: “The theory that if we are nice to Trump he’ll be nice to us doesn’t seem to be going brilliantly...”

Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston added that Trump seemed “determined to insult” May in his interview, saying, “The divisive, dog-whistle rhetoric in his Sun interview is repulsive. If signing up to the Trump would view is the price of a deal, it’s not worth paying.”

Others questioned whether it should be allowed for Trump to meet the Queen, which he is due to do at Windsor Castle on Friday. “Trump is a racist and disrespects our nation. Why does he get to meet our Queen?” Labour MP Anna Turley asked.

And these MPs aren’t the only ones left seething at Trump’s presence in the UK and his troublesome comments. Demonstrations are due to take place today across London to protest the US president’s visit. A rally entitled ‘Together against Trump’ will start at Downing Street at 5:30pm on Friday, with around 5,000 people expected to attend. But the main march, organised by left-wing politics writer Owen Jones, will see protesters start at Portland Place at 2pm and, according to attendee numbers on Facebook, 60,000 people are planning to take part.

But Trump won’t actually be in London during the protests; he briefly visited the American ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park on Thursday, but will mostly avoid central London for the duration of his stay. After his tea with the Queen this afternoon, he and wife Melania are due to head straight to Scotland for the remainder of their trip, before flying back to America on Sunday.

If there’s one silver lining to this gloomy cloud that is Trump’s UK visit, it’s that we've finally managed to find out exactly what the US president thinks of the giant ‘Trump baby’ inflatable, which is due to fly over London during protests today (campaigners raised £18,000 to get it made, and it was even approved by Sadiq Khan). “He’s really quite stung by the criticism he’s been getting,” said Sun journalist, Tom Newton Dunn. “He knew all about the baby blimp. I think it hurt him.”

Speaking of the mass protest, Owen Jones said: “We need to show the world what millions of people in this country think of the bigotry and the hatred that he represents. We’ve seen the rise of the far right in Britain and Europe, and the one lesson we should learn from history is that, when racists and the far right mobilize, you fight back, you don’t let them march and rise to power.”