LONDON – President Donald Trump will avoid London as much as possible as he's whisked off on a tour of prime British real estate to keep him away from protesters during his visit to the United Kingdom.
On his arrival Thursday, the president will be taken by helicopter to Blenheim Palace, the 300-year-old mansion where Winston Churchill was born. On Friday, he will meet Prime Minister Theresa May at her country estate and later take tea with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, a family home to the royals for 1,000 years.
Meanwhile tens of thousands of Britons, joined by activists from across Europe, are planning a "Carnival of resistance" to protest the president. Anti-Trump activist Leo Murray raised money to pay for "Trump Baby," a 6-meter-high helium-filled version of the president that has unusually small hands and feet and is sporting a diaper, which he intends to fly over London.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has allowed the giant orange balloon, but the organizers will still need final approval from the Metropolitan Police and from British air traffic control. A spokesman for the mayor said that Khan supported the right to peaceful protests and realized that planned demonstrations could take different forms. The mayor and Trump have been involved in a series of Twitter spats over the past year.
"My slogan is 'make racists afraid again.' Trump's made them confident; I want to make them afraid," said Mark Thomas, 49, who will join demonstrators in the capital. "The protest is not only to say that he's not welcome here, but those of us who believe in an alternative need to stand up for equality and justice."
Relations between Trump and May have been fraught. Despite May's being the first world leader to visit him at the White House, the two have never enjoyed a close rapport. He regards her as a bossy schoolmistress; she finds it hard to get a word in on their trans-Atlantic phone calls. At the G-7 meeting in Canada last month, he didn't find time for a one-on-one meeting with May.
Trump has angered Britons by retweeting propaganda from a far-right British anti-Muslim group, criticizing London's response to terror attacks and leaking intelligence about the Manchester terror attack. Faced with widespread calls to cancel the entire trip, the U.K. has downgraded his visit, meaning most of it can be outside of London.
Police fear the protests could turn violent as anarchist and hard-left groups, reinforced by militants from mainland Europe, mingle with the crowds before coalescing at an agreed signal to attack officers and prominent buildings.
