LONDON — President Donald Trump will touch down Tuesday in a country whose king is prepared to fete him, and whose citizenry roundly dislikes him.
Happily for the president, he will see a lot of King Charles III and little of everyday Britons in a two-day trip where he’ll make history as the first elected leader to receive not one but two state visits courtesy of the royal family.
Looming over Trump’s arrival in Europe is the war playing out on the east end of the continent. Hostilities between Russia and Ukraine took an escalatory turn last week when Russian drones entered Poland’s airspace and were shot down.
The incident renewed fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin may widen the conflict and threaten other European democracies unless he is stopped. As the war grinds on, Trump’s effort to make peace has stalled, giving rise to complaints among some diplomats and members of Congress that he is not putting enough pressure on Putin to halt the attacks.
The war figures to come up when Trump meets privately on Thursday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, his official country residence outside London. There, the two leaders will view the archives of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The symbolism is unmistakable. Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt forged an invaluable friendship as they joined to fight Nazi Germany in World War II. Russia was part of the troika that defeated Adolf Hitler.
Now, the West faces threats from a Russian dictatorial regime, and Europe again is beseeching the U.S. president to come to its aid.
Whether Trump is on board seems to depend on the day. He has sent mixed signals about responsibility for the war, which began in 2022 when Russia sent tanks and troops rolling into Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rallied his country and prevented a quick rout. In a post on his social media site Saturday, Trump wrote that the war is not his. Rather, he wrote, “it is [former President Joe] Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s war.” He did not mention Putin.
But speaking to reporters the following day, he cast Russia as the “aggressor.”
Trump said over the weekend that he is prepared to slap “major” sanctions on Russia, but first wants all 32 nations in the NATO military alliance to stop buying Russian oil.
“I hope that the leaders who meet Trump these days behind closed doors are very frank about it,” Marko Mihkelson, who chairs the foreign affairs committee in Estonia’s Parliament, said in an interview. “If Mr. Trump thinks that this is not his war or that he can run away and that Ukraine is somehow a faraway country, that would be an epic mistake.”
First, though, comes the pomp. World leaders have long used flattery in attempting to win favor with Trump. In this instance, Starmer hand-delivered an invitation from King Charles during a meeting in the Oval Office in February. Trump’s last state visit, in 2019, was a “tremendous success,” gushed Starmer, who is relying on Trump to stand up for Ukraine and prevent further Russian aggression.
“Every time the European Union tries to push against Trump, they’ve gone to incredible efforts to butter him up,” said Michael Bociurkiw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank. He mentioned that Mark Rutte, secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, called Trump “Daddy” at a summit in June and how European leaders praised Trump during a visit to the White House in August to discuss the war, likening them to a “cheerleading squad meeting with the football coach.”
The upcoming state dinner “is another iteration of what has become the strategy for dealing with Trump,” said Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration.
“I’m not surprised that they [the British] are going to do it, and because of our cultural and historical connections, they can do it like virtually no other country in the world,” he continued.
A group called the “Stop Trump Coalition” is staging a protest during the president’s visit, but he isn’t likely to see it. He’ll be an overnight guest of the king and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle on Wednesday and will join the royal couple for a carriage procession inside the private estate. By contrast, when French President Emmanuel Macron visited earlier this year, his carriage ride took him through the town of Windsor.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nbcnews.com ’
