After much back-and-fourth US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will make a three-day visit to the United Kingdom in early June.
Buckingham Palace and the White House announced Tuesday that Trump has accepted an invitation from the Queen to visit the UK. The much-anticipated visit will take place from Monday 3 June to Wednesday 5 June.
“This state visit will reaffirm the steadfast and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,” the White House said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in a tweet, the palace confirmed “the President of The United States of America, President Donald J. Trump, accompanied by Mrs Melania Trump, has accepted an invitation from Her Majesty The Queen to pay a State Visit to the UK”.
It will mark the president’s first state visit to the UK, though he made a working visit last July. Further details of the state visit will be announced in due course.
The Queen has previously hosted two state visits from U.S. presidents: President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, made a state visit to the UK in 2003, and Barack and Michelle Obama made a state visit to the UK in 2011.
Following the historic meeting last July it was widely reported that Trump and First Lady Melania arrived late to Windsor Castle, along with claims that other members of the Royal family refused to meet the US leader.
However, speaking at a Make America Great Again rally in Pennsylvania in August last year, Trump denied being late to meet the monarch, instead revealing that Queen Elizabeth actually kept him waiting for 15 minutes because he arrived early.
“I was asked to have tea with the Queen, who is incredible by the way. Incredible,” he says in a video shared by The Sun. “I landed and I’m on the ground and I’m waiting with the King’s and the Queen’s guards — wonderful people. I’m waiting.
“I was about 15 minutes early and I’m waiting with my wife and that’s fine. Hey, it’s the Queen, right? We can wait. But I’m a little early.”
“So, I then go up and meet the Queen and she is fantastic. We then go up and we have tea. And I didn’t know this — it was supposed to last 15 minutes but it lasted like an hour. Because we got along. And she liked our first lady and our first lady liked her.”