President Donald Trump has pulled out of a planned visit to London where he was supposed to be opening the new $1 billion embassy building on the banks of the river Thames. In typical fashion, Trump has blamed President Obama for his refusal to attend, but the real reason is reportedly very different. Trump won't go to London because he knows that the people of London just don't want him there.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan roasts Trump over his canceled visit
It would be fair to say that London Mayor Sadiq Khan is no fan of President Trump. In the wake of the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack last year, Trump used the attack to try to justify his attempts to ban travelers from a group of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. It is no exaggeration to say that Londoners were outraged. Mayor Khan called out the president on his remarks in no uncertain terms.
When President Trump took to Twitter to announce that he had canceled his planned trip to London, Mayor Khan was delighted.
As reported by the BBC, Khan took to Twitter to say that "it appears that President Trump has finally 'got the message' that he is not welcome in London."
Mayor Khan's statement made it clear that many Londoners view Trump's policies as "divisive" and the "polar opposite of [London's] values of inclusion, diversity, and tolerance." Mayor Khan has been a vocal critic of prime minister Theresa May's decision to invite Trump to make a state visit to the United Kingdom. Of course, Khan is not the only person who objects to the president being offered a state visit. Almost two million people signed a petition demanding that Mrs. May withdraw the invitation.
Will President Trump's state visit to the United Kingdom still happen?
We have to face the fact that for a British prime minister to withdraw an invitation for a state visit would be a huge embarrassment for the British government. After all, no British government would want to be seen to damage the so-called "special relationship" between the two nations. That said, the whole issue has developed into a huge political embarrassment for Mrs. May and her conservative government.
President Trump's retweeting of two totally fake and misleading Twitter messages from British far-right extremist group, Britain First, caused major difficulties for May, who lost her parliamentary majority in last June's ill-fated snap election.
Privately, May was reportedly furious, but her comments that President Trump was "wrong" to share those messages show just how precarious her position is.
Make no mistake, most Briton's love America, but few can stomach Donald Trump. If the US president does eventually make a state visit to the UK, he will be met by huge protests. Millions are expected to take to the streets of London to oppose the president and to make it absolutely clear that he is not welcome. Trump's recent comments about "s**thole" countries will not have made him any more popular on that side of the pond.