Updated 9.12 pm
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump will travel to the United Kingdom on 13 July, diplomats have confirmed.
The British Ambassador to the US Kim Darroch said this afternoon that he was “delighted” about the visit and Downing Street later confirmed the news.
“The President of the United States will visit the UK on 13 July,” Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman said in a statement, adding he would hold bilateral talks with the British leader.
May controversially offered Trump a state visit when she was the first foreign leader to visit him shortly after entering the White House
While Trump’s one-day visit will not represent a state visit, The Guardian reports that Trump will meet Britian’s Queen Elizabeth II during his time in the UK.
A White House spokesperson told RTÉ’s Washington Correspondent, Brian O’Donovan, that ”as of now, there are no plans to visit Ireland”.
That comment was echoed by a spokesperson for the Irish government who said:
The President has indicated his desire to visit Ireland at some time during the course of his Presidency. There are currently no plans in place for such a visit.
Trump had intended to visit the UK in February as part of the planned opening of a US embassy in London but the plans were changed and Trump did not travel.
Nearly two million people signed a petition demanding that the president be banned from making a state visit to the UK.
The invitation provoked uproar in Britain, where the US president’s “America First” agenda, including a proposed ban on immigration from a number of Muslim-majority countries, is unpopular.
British lawmakers called on May to withdraw the offer, while protesters have promised to turn out in record numbers, reiterating those pledges today.
Owen Jones🌹 / Twitter
Owen Jones🌹 / Twitter / Twitter
The July trip is set to be a working visit, with the US president expected at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 and 12 July.
Meanwhile the offer of a ceremonial state visit remains on the table, according to a Whitehall source.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reacted enthusiastically, imitating the US commander-in-chief’s distinct Twitter style.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who clashed with Trump on social media amid last year’s terror attacks on the British capital, said the president “will experience an open and diverse city that has always chosen unity over division and hope over fear”.
With reporting by Christina Finn, Rónán Duffy and © – AFP 2018
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