Trump meeting Queen rankles with many Britons

LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II welcomes US President Donald Trump to Windsor Castle on Friday for a meeting which many Britons find the toughest part of his trip to swallow.

Trump was gracious about the British sovereign in a newspaper interview out Friday.However, his previous comments about the royals have been less tactful, including boasting he would have slept with Diana, princess of Wales “without even hesitation”, and saying “who wouldn’t” photograph the Duchess of Cambridge topless.

Some 1.86 million people signed a petition at the June 2017 general election, wanting to prevent Trump from making a state visit “because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen”.

His four-day trip to Britain is not a state visit — with the formal trappings of a carriage procession and certain banquets — but it bears many of the hallmarks, including time with the head of state. A YouGov poll of 1,648 British adults conducted on Monday and Tuesday found that half thought Trump’s working visit to Britain should go ahead, with just over a third thinking it should be cancelled.