The Royal family did not cut any corners for the pomp and pageantry of a royal state visit despite it being an unprecedented second one for US President Donald Trump.
The red carpets were rolled out and a degree of ceremonial extravagance was on full-display, which arguably hasn’t been matched by any other State Visits held in the reign of King Charles.
On Wednesday, Trump and First Lady Melania were welcomed by the Prince and Princess of Wales at Windsor Castle and then formally introduced to the King and Queen Camilla. Charles then invited him to inspect a Guard of Honour formed of three regiments, followed by a carriage ride around the ‘untraditionally’ empty Windsor Great Park.
After the spectacle of the first day, the second day of the visit will be more focussed on the political aspects such as discussing global affairs, investment and other political matters between the two states.
Trump is set to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday for bilateral meeting. It is anticipated that the President appeared pleased and dubbed the visit as “highest honours of [his] life”.
Given that the US President’s outlook on the UK is positive, the spectacle of the royal welcome would have put him in a good mood for the meetings ahead – which would reflect in better negotiations.
However, the state visit did not come without its problems as tensions had been simmering given some disagreement between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street.
According to previous reports, the King had wanted an informal visit at Balmoral Castle in Scotland rather than a second state visit in UK. The visit was turned into a major event from Downing Street in hopes of pleasing their ally.Despite this, the Palace dutifully obliged as these visits are planned by the UK Government.
It was understood that Trump also wanted full royal treatment during this visit.
A courtier revealed to BBC that there has “been a large amount of government pressure to make this massive and that’s been the challenge”.
The scale of the ceremonial welcome was stepped up. A Whitehall source noted, “It’s theatre. It’s all show. It’s not like we are going to do deep substance. We are sucking up to the most powerful guy in the world for good reason.”