Trump may not visit the UK this year because he’s so unpopular there



President Trump is considering postponing or even canceling a state visit to Britain this year because he is wildly unpopular among the Brits.
The Guardian published a report on Sunday saying that Trump had told British Prime Minister Theresa May in a phone call that he would delay his state visit until he had more popular support.
While a spokesperson for Trump said that the state visit “never came up on the call” with May, officials told the New York Times that Trump was indeed considering canceling the visit. May’s office also issued a statement on Sunday saying that there have been “no changes” to plans for a state visit.
As Trump continues to face backlash over comments he made about London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the fact that the state visit is up in the air demonstrates how unpopular Trump really is.
In fact, a date for the visit was never officially set. White House officials considered including the UK when Trump visits Europe next month, but that idea was dropped because of scheduling issues. It was then penciled in for the fall, according to the New York Times, but there have been no official preparations.
The visit hasn’t been ruled out, though. Officials told the New York Times it was
possible that the president could eventually warm to the idea of a visit this year.

Trump is very unpopular in the UK

It’s no wonder that Trump is wary of visiting the UK — he’s incredibly unpopular there, and his visit would likely spark large protests. Ben Walker, founder of the poll-watching site Britain Elects, estimated that just “10 percent” of British people like Trump, reported Vox’s Zack Beauchamp. In February of this year, 1.8 million people signed an online petition calling for the cancellation of Trump’s state visit the UK. The British government ended up formally rejecting the petition, but they got the message.
Indeed, Trump’s unpopularity and closeness with Prime Minister May (they were photographed holding hands when she visited the White House in January) might have even played a role in May’s astonishing loss of her party’s parliamentary majority in last week’s election.
Trump’s recent unpopularity stems from his sharp criticism of Khan on Twitter following the terrorist attacks there earlier this month that killed eight people. In a TV appearance the morning after the attack, the city’s popular mayor said, “Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There's no reason to be alarmed.”
Trump misinterpreted Khan’s words as him downplaying the terrorist attack, so he mocked Khan on Twitter:
While Khan did not respond directly, his spokesperson did: “[The mayor] has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks.”
Khan now joins the 1.8 million people who want to cancel Trump’s visit. Just two days after Trump tweeted, the mayor appeared on TV and suggested that the state visit should be canceled:
I don't think we should roll out the red carpet to the president of the USA in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for. When you have a special relationship, it is no different from when you have got a close mate. You stand with them in times of adversity, but you call them out when they are wrong. And there are many things about which Donald Trump is wrong.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, May’s opponent in the election who unexpectedly won big, also tweeted support for canceling Trump’s state visit on Sunday. He cited Trump’s feud with Khan and the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accords:
While a state visit might not happen this year, there’s no guarantee that Trump will ever be popular enough in the UK to avoid protests and receive a warm red-carpet welcome when a visit does occur.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)