The chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee raised concerns that the US President ‘can’t stop himself’, and claimed she was ‘worried’ about the King and Queen heading to America
Donald Trump could use an upcoming state visit to embarrass the King, Emily Thornberry has warned.
The chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee raised concerns that the US President “ can’t stop himself“, and claimed she was “worried” about the King and Queen heading to America.
The pair will meet with Trump in person five times over four days as they try to repair the strained relations between the US and UK amid the conflict in Iran.
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Ms Thornberry, an outspoken critic of the US President, described the visit as “high stakes”. She said: “At the moment I have reservations about it. My worry is that they’ll be embarrassed, my worry is Trump’s behaviour, and my worry is that it’s against a backdrop of there being a war and I hope that it’s been thought through very carefully and that there aren’t opportunities for Trump to embarrass their majesties.
“I worry about him saying something to the media, the media shout out questions to him all the time, and he can’t stop himself answering. At 4:00 in the morning when he’s over excited, I just don’t know what he might write. “He seems to think the King is a personal friend, and that the King is the one who wants to come. The King is probably being a proper public servant and doing the right thing. I worry about it, it’s high stakes.”
Donald Trump has already been handed two state visits to the UK, but this is the first time a British monarch has visited the US since Queen Elizabeth in 2007. Tensions have been particularly high between Trump and Keir Starmer, with the president calling the UK’s approach to the Iran war “terrible” and labelling the PM as “no Winston Churchill”.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has called on the PM to call off the royal state visit, which will mark the start of the 250th anniversary of American independence. Speaking last week, he said: “President Trump is one of the most unpredictable people we have seen on the world stage and I hope he does not embarrass our monarch”.