WINDSOR, England (AP) — President Donald Trump basked in a British royal spectacle Wednesday, greeted by military honor guards and mounted troops in red and gold as King Charles III’s guest at Windsor Castle for the start of a state visit full of pageantry and political risks for the host country.
Prince William and his wife Catherine met Trump’s helicopter as it landed in the private Walled Garden on the vast estate, and they walked the American president and first lady Melania Trump over to be greeted by the king and Queen Camilla.
The guests traveled to the castle in a procession of horse-drawn carriages, past ranks of soldiers, sailors and aviators, as military bands played the U.S. and British national anthems. The king and the Republican president chatted in the Irish State Coach during the short journey to the castle quadrangle, where Trump, accompanied by Charles, inspected an honor guard of soldiers in red tunics and bearskin hats.
The day of pageantry, the highlight of Trump’s second state visit to Britain, was on a scale designed to impress the grandeur-loving president and involved some 120 horses and 1,300 troops, including the largest guard of honor in living memory.
It is all meant to bolster ties with Trump at a time when his America First policies are putting pressure on trade and security arrangements around the globe. British officials are also hoping to avoid awkward questions about Jeffrey Epstein. Days before the state visit, Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired Britain’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, over the diplomat’s past friendship with the convicted sex offender.
