US President praises monarch and Sir Keir Starmer before unprecedented royal welcome at Windsor Castle with Princess Kate, Red Arrows flypast and state banquet
Donald Trump has called King Charles his friend and an “elegant gentleman” as he prepares to become the first world leader to receive a second full state visit to Britain, complete with a royal carriage procession, Red Arrows flypast and grand banquet at Windsor Castle.
The US President and First Lady Melania are expected to land at RAF Northolt tonight for the historic three-day visit, during which they will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle. The 79-year-old president will enjoy full royal pageantry including a carriage ride with the Prince and Princess of Wales and unprecedented military honours never before deployed for a state visit.
Speaking at the White House before boarding Air Force One, Trump said his visit was “primarily” to meet the King and Queen, adding: “They’re friends of mine for a long time, long before he was King, and it’s an honour to have him as King. I think he represents the country so well. I’ve watched, he’s such an elegant gentleman.”
Trump also praised Sir Keir Starmer ahead of the visit, saying he represents the UK “so well”, despite their stark political differences. The Labour Prime Minister has invested heavily in courting Trump since his election victory, visiting him at Trump Turnberry in Scotland and hand-delivering the King’s invitation during an Oval Office meeting in February.
Breaking Royal Protocol
Typically, US presidents in their second term – like Mr Trump – are not offered full state visits, but rather tea or lunch with the monarch, as was the case with George W Bush and Barack Obama. However, Trump is bucking the trend with this second full state visit, which follows his first in June 2019 when he met the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“It’s the first time it has ever happened where somebody was honoured twice,” Trump noted proudly before departure. The invitation, which Starmer described as “unprecedented” when he delivered it in February, represents a calculated diplomatic gambit by the British government to leverage Trump’s fascination with royalty to advance UK interests.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will join President Donald Trump next week on a state visit to the U.K., alongside OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Blackstone CEO Steven Schwartzman, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, signalling major business announcements are expected during the visit.
Royal Welcome at Windsor
The Trumps will be greeted upon arrival tonight by US Ambassador Warren Stephens on behalf of the King. They will stay within Windsor Castle’s private estate, chosen whilst refurbishment works continue at Buckingham Palace. There are not expected to be any public-facing elements on Tuesday evening.
Wednesday morning’s ceremonies will begin when the Prince and Princess of Wales greet the president and his wife on the Windsor grounds before accompanying them to meet the King and Queen for an open-air greeting. The couples will then take part in a carriage procession through the estate to the castle, alongside the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment providing a Sovereign’s Escort, with members of the armed forces and three military bands.
However, unlike French President Emmanuel Macron’s July state visit, Trump’s carriage procession will only run within the castle grounds rather than through Windsor town, reportedly due to Secret Service security concerns. Royal expert Ingrid Seward told journalists: “I just cannot see the Secret Service allowing it to happen when you could have someone in an upstairs window taking a potshot at the President.”
Military Honours and Tributes
A ceremonial guard of honour will be staged in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle, with gun salutes fired simultaneously from Windsor and the Tower of London. The Trumps will enjoy lunch with the royal family and view a Royal Collection exhibition within the castle.
In a poignant private ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, Mr and Mrs Trump will visit St George’s Chapel to lay a wreath on the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II. Trump, who did not attend her funeral in 2022 as Joe Biden was president at the time, has repeatedly expressed his admiration for the late monarch.
The day’s pageantry will crescendo with a flypast by the Red Arrows alongside UK and US F-35 military jets on the east lawn at Windsor Castle. For the first time at a state visit, there will also be a special Beating Retreat military ceremony.
State Banquet and Speeches
Wednesday evening will see a traditional grand state banquet in Windsor Castle’s St George’s Hall, where both the King and Trump will deliver speeches. The banquet has already sparked controversy, with Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey boycotting the state banquet during Trump’s visit, over the situation in Gaza.
Davey said that Trump “has the power to stop the horrifying starvation and death in Gaza and get the hostages released” due to his influence over Israel, Qatar and the Gulf states. Prince Andrew will notably not participate in any events, given the ongoing controversy surrounding his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Business and Bilateral Talks
Thursday will shift from pageantry to policy as Trump travels to Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country residence in Buckinghamshire. He will be greeted with a guard of honour from RAF Halton and bagpipers – a nod to his Scottish heritage through his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump.
The two leaders will view the Sir Winston Churchill archives before holding bilateral meetings focused on trade, technology partnerships and global security issues. The U.S. and U.K are expected to sign a flurry of major new deals during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain this week, seeking to kickstart a “golden age” of nuclear power.
Some of the multi-billion-pound agreements set to be inked include plans by U.S. and U.K. companies to build up to 12 advanced new modular reactors in Hartlepool, a port town in northeast England, and a push to develop data centers powered by small modular reactors (SMRs) in Nottinghamshire.
A business reception will be hosted by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, with executives from GSK, Microsoft, Rolls-Royce and other major firms in attendance. The visit will conclude with a joint press conference where Trump and Starmer are expected to announce significant investment deals worth tens of billions of pounds.
Protests Expected
A “Trump Not Welcome” demonstration will be held in London on 17 September by the Stop Trump Coalition. The coalition has accused Trump of “denying climate science” and “siding with war criminals – in Israel, Russia and beyond” and asked the British government to cancel the state visit.
By March 2025, a petition calling for the cancellation of Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK had reached 250,000 signatures. Thames Valley Police have confirmed extensive security operations covering “the skies, streets and the River Thames” during the visit.
Strategic Diplomacy
The visit comes at a crucial time for Starmer, whose government faces mounting domestic pressures and seeks to secure favourable trade terms with the US whilst avoiding Trump’s threatened tariffs. The UK was the first country to sign a trade deal with Trump’s administration but received a baseline 10% tariff on exports to the States.
Ukraine and Gaza are expected to dominate diplomatic discussions, with Starmer pushing Trump to support Ukraine and help contain Israel’s military operations. However, momentum on an end to conflict in Ukraine has stalled since President Trump’s August meeting in the Oval Office with President Zelenskyy, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European leaders.
Trump’s long-standing fascination with the British royal family – stemming from his Scottish mother’s devotion to the monarchy – has been carefully cultivated by successive British governments. His 1988 hosting of then-Prince Charles at Mar-a-Lago and repeated expressions of admiration for royal tradition have made him uniquely susceptible to royal soft power.
As Trump put it himself: “I hate to say it, but nobody does it like you people in terms of the pomp and ceremony. Windsor is supposed to be amazing.”
The success of this unprecedented second state visit may well determine whether Starmer’s gamble on royal diplomacy can translate into tangible benefits for post-Brexit Britain in an increasingly uncertain world.
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Image Credit:
Donald and Melania Trump arriving at King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh — photo by Shealah Craighead, Public Domain.
