When U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump travel through central London to Buckingham Palace on Monday, they will be greeted by more than one hundred thousand protestors, activists say.
Trump arrives in London on Monday for his first official state visit to the U.K. During the three-day visit the President is set to dine with Queen Elizabeth, attend discussions with British Prime Minister Theresa May and commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, when 150,000 allied troops pushed German forces from France.
Wherever Trump goes over the next three days, he’ll almost certainly be met with heated protests. Anti-Trump demonstrations are set to take place in London and across the U.K. during the visit. Kate Hudson, Secretary General of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), tells TIME she expects hundreds of thousands to gather from all around the country. “There’s very strong opposition to Trump in the U.K.,” she says.
Demonstrations will begin on Monday afternoon outside Buckingham Palace, with a protest called “Spoil Trump’s Banquet”, organized by a group named ‘Together Against Trump.’ Lindsey German, one of the protest’s organizers and a founder of the UK’s Stop The War Coalition calls it a “special unwelcome.”
On Tuesday, the largest anti-Trump protests are planned from 11am as Trump lunches with May at her 10 Downing Street residence. In response the Metropolitan Police are launching what they have called a “multi-faceted security operation” during Trump’s visit, according to a press release, issued Saturday June 1.
Police are blocking off part of the surrounding area on Tuesday, and several road closures and diversions will be in place. German says, “we’ll get as close to Downing Street as possible so that we effectively surround Trump and he won’t be able to ignore us.”
Once again activists plan to inflate a 20 ft tall balloon depicting Trump as an orange baby wearing a diaper, made possible by crowdfunding more than $37,000. Last year, Leo Murray, the creator of the balloon, told TIME “This is not a protest against America or Americans,” but a “protest against what Donald Trump is turning America into.”
Inflatable Trump flew over heads during mass protests last year on July 13 when the President visited the U.K. Even though Trump avoided London for most of his visit, it didn’t stop 250,000 people flooding the city center, and a total of about 400,000 protesters across the U.K. “It showed the strength of feeling. And that hasn’t diminished,” says Hudson.
Activists will also gather in Portsmouth on Wednesday when Trump, May and the Queen are to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Local authorities have erected a “ring of steel” to shield world leaders from the public.
Mohammed Ateek, a protest organizer from Stand Up To Trump and Syrian refugee activist, says he’s standing against Trump’s “harmful and divisive” policies. “It’s very important that people like me – immigrants, refugees – make our voices heard,” he says. “His policies affect the whole world.” Ateek believes climate issues will be at the heart of this year’s anti-Trump protests now that “so many more people are aware of it.” The President has repeatedly voiced skepticism about global warming, even when his own cabinet presented a report in 2018 warning of its devastating effects.
There’s now a greater “sense of urgency” to show opposition to Trump, says Hudson from CND. She’s opposed to Trump withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty – a major treaty with Russia to eliminate intermediate and shorter range missiles. “We want him to stay in the deal to prevent nuclear arms proliferation,” says German, who also criticizes Trump’s pressure on NATO members to increase spending.
Trump’s complaints about NATO date back his 2016 presidential campaign. He has since said the U.S. would not protect other members unless they increased their agreed upon 2% gross domestic product (GDP) spending on defense. “This is a violation of our national sovereignty. Only our government should decide how much it spends,” says Hudson.
A U.K. official said Trump’s NATO criticisms have been a “good thing.” The U.K. is one of the few countries in the NATO alliance which meets the 2% GDP defense spending target. “The reality is, the President’s pressure on this point has got results,” he said. “We agree others should be spending more […] but we think everyone should be at 2% now.”
But not everyone is marching to the same angry beat. Some Londoners are intent on giving Trump a warmer welcome. Republicans Overseas U.K., a political organization created in 2013 for U.S. citizens living abroad, is hosting a ticketed event in a central London restaurant on Tuesday evening to celebrate “the special Anglo-American relationship, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and the President’s visit of course,” says Sarah Elliott, U.K. Chair of Republicans Overseas.
For Elliott, the visit is an important sign of increasing cooperation between the U.S. and “it’s most important” ally. “We hope it’ll lay the groundwork for more trade between the countries,” she says. “With Brexit happening soon, the U.K, needs to focus on building stronger ties outside Europe.” The U.K. is currently the 7th largest goods trading partner with some $127 billion (two way) in total trade during 2018. U.S. exports to the U.K. were $66 billion last year, up by approximately 18% from 2017.
For the second year running, a west London pub will celebrate the arrival of the U.S. President by rebranding itself the “Trump Arms”. The weekend before Trump’s 2018 visit the Jameson pub was decorated in U.S. flags and brought together Trump supporters, wearing red caps reading “Make America Great Again”.
“Someone has to show Americans that we’re their friends,” says pub owner Damien Smyth, 54. “A lot of young people tell me they’re afraid to tell their friends they support Trump because they don’t want to be lambasted. It’s awful.”
May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his inauguration. He’ll be the last foreign leader to visit her before she resigns as head of the Conservative Party on June 7, drawing her three-year tenure to a close. May has said it’s a chance for the U.S. and U.K. “to strengthen” its already “close relationship.” But other U.K. politicians, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, are boycotting the banquet.
In interviews ahead of the visit, Trump did not hold back from commentating on Britain’s current political situation. Conservative Party leadership contender Boris Johnson would be an “excellent” leader, he told the Sun.
Whoever it is, the U.K. official says, a strong relationship with Trump will be a “priority.”
With reporting by Kim Dozier/Washington
