A 20-foot-tall inflatable orange baby with the face of President
Donald Trump will float over Britain’s Parliament next week, one of many
acts of protest planned to coincide with Trump's first visit to the
U.K. since taking office.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to march in London, Scotland and elsewhere during his trip, which takes place amid a growing transatlantic trade war and global dismay at the treatment of immigrant families at the U.S. border.
Britain is keen to reinforce its special relationship with Washington as it prepares to leave the European Union, a divorce that will shape the country’s standing in the world. But Trump's visit has already been scaled down after months of back-and-forth; the president canceled plans to open the new U.S. Embassy in January and his official state visit — opposed in a petition by at least 1.9 million Brits — appears to be on ice.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to march in London, Scotland and elsewhere during his trip, which takes place amid a growing transatlantic trade war and global dismay at the treatment of immigrant families at the U.S. border.
Britain is keen to reinforce its special relationship with Washington as it prepares to leave the European Union, a divorce that will shape the country’s standing in the world. But Trump's visit has already been scaled down after months of back-and-forth; the president canceled plans to open the new U.S. Embassy in January and his official state visit — opposed in a petition by at least 1.9 million Brits — appears to be on ice.
Trump will instead pay a working visit on July 13 for bilateral talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May, a meeting with the queen and possibly a round of golf in Scotland where he owns two resorts.
Mass anti-Trump marches have been more than a year in the planning, after May first extended an invitation for Trump to visit the U.K. in early 2017.
The largest are planned in London, where organizers of Together Against Trump estimate up to 100,000 people, including labor unions and rights groups, will march through the center of the city to Trafalgar Square.
The people behind last year’s successful Women’s March are staging a Bring The Noise rally earlier on the same day to end in Parliament Square, opposite the House of Commons. (You can already buy the T-shirt.)
A quieter but eye-catching protest is planned by Leo Murray, 41, who received permission Thursday to fly a helium-filled blimp of Trump as a baby during the visit.
Last month, the president said in a speech to the National Rifle Association that British hospitals were “like a war zone” because of stabbing wounds — an assertion apparently based on the comments of a doctor. "Knives, knives, knives, knives,” Trump said.
He has also been rebuked, twice, by May: in January, for retweeting inflammatory anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant videos originally shared by a far-right U.K. political group, and again on Wednesday when she called the separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border “deeply disturbing” and “wrong.”
“Trump is a disruptor in diplomatic relations just as he is at home,” said Meyer, the former ambassador. “He is deeply controversial overseas and anyone who bothers to read poll figures from the U.K. will see that public opinion of him in Britain is very low.”
Ed Milliband former Leader of the Labour Party as well as Leader of the Opposition between 2010 and 2015 noted in a Tweet about Trump: "He lies about crime in Britain, he lies about crime in Germany, he lies about and defends his cruel, inhumane, barbaric policy of separating babies and children at the border, a new low even for him, and in less than four weeks, @theresa_may will roll out the red carpet. Really?"
Read more: Trump's visit to Britain faces mass protest — and a big blimp
