By Ben Kerrigan-
U.S president, Donald Trump will be visiting the UK in the new year, the U.S ambassador has announced.
The announcement was formally made on BBC’s Today programme that the president will visit in early 2018, when Trump will formally open a new American embassy in the UK.
The ambassador made the announcement during an interview about the US embassy’s move from its current UK headquarters in Grosvenor Square in central London to a new £800m complex in Battersea. It appears the timing of the visit is primarily because of the plan to relocate the U.S embassy in London.
Woodford Johnson said the new embassy would need to be dedicated by an American president.
Johnson said of Trump:
“He understands the special relationship and while there may be disagreements about the way he says something or how he does something you can rest assured security and prosperity are very important.”
Trump was involved in a brief twitter disagreement with Theresa May, after the American president retweeted tweets from ‘Britain first’- a British far right group that actively spits anti-muslim rhetorics. The UK government has also had a series of disagreements with Trump over climate change, the Iranian nuclear deal and the imposition of tariffs on the plane and train manufacturer Bombardier.
In response to a question about the tweet from far right group ‘Britain First’, Johnson said: “The way I would look at [it] and the way he would look at it is that security is the number one oath protecting Americans here and in the US. … If you look at it in that context that is what is he trying to do.”
The point being made here was that Trump is always going to support anything that is along the lines of anti-terrorism. His seeming anti-Muslim sentiments is where public opinion has been strong against his voice, but the American president is vocal and doesn’t mind expressing views that go against public views.
OPINIONS
Johnson told the BBC programme that Trump
“will canvass opinions from 50 people, and he will look at you, listen to you, will give you feedback on your opinion, and actually if he agrees with you, he will use your opinion. He listens to advice and to people around him, but he is going to make his own decisions.”
The visit will be very important, but likely to draw a wide range of reactions from the British people. A lot will depend on how the U.S president presents himself in his speeches, but he will be prepared for criticisms and negative comments.
Trump was involved in a brief twitter disagreement with Theresa May, after the American president had a series of disagreements with Trump over climate change, the Iranian nuclear deal and the imposition of tariffs on the plane and train manufacturer Bombardier.
In June, Trump criticised the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, for his response to the London Bridge terror attack, misquoting Khan’s message to Londoners not to be alarmed by the increased presence of armed police.
“There may be disagreements of how [Mr Trump] says something, or how he does something,” Johnson said. “He wants to protect Americans. He is not going to be namby-pamby about it. I mean, he is going to come out. He is probably going to take some chances and maybe he will ruffle feathers.”
The ambassador insisted the security alignment between the two countries remained intact. Speaking of May’s visit to the Oval Office in January, Johnson said: “The prime minister was his first visitor, the first official foreign leader to visit.”
There were calls for a high-level reciprocal visit to be abandoned after Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos last month.