Stop Trump Coalition promises "maximum disruption' during state visit

Will the Baby Trump blimp once again fly in the sky over London? Buckingham Palace is expected to extend an invitation to President Trump for his first official state visit. The date for the visit is reported to be in early June.

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Prime Minister Theresa May promised an invitation for an official state visit after President Trump was elected in 2016 but as of yet a formal visit has not happened. In the case of Great Britain, the invitation comes from Queen Elizabeth. She will be the official host. State visits are not just ceremonial. They have political purposes and are used to further national interests.

Last July President Trump was in London for a two-day working visit with Prime Minister May. During that time, mass protests were organized and the Baby Trump blimp debuted. The blimp was quite a hit with the international #Resistance crowd and it followed Trump throughout that visit, which included Scotland. Since then the blimp has appeared during President Trump’s trips to conferences around the world and in the U.S.

So here we are in 2019 and activists are promising “maximum disruption” in London.

According to BBC News, on Tuesday Buckingham Palace will announce its invitation to Trump for a formal state visit, which includes all the royal pomp, in a move set to provoke backlash from the president’s British critics.

Nick Dearden, who helped organize London’s mass protests against Trump’s two-day working visit last year, said plans are already afoot for when the president arrives, including a “big demo.”

“It’s up to us, again, to say Trump is not welcome, and to make his visit as unpleasant as possible. We’re going to aim for maximum disruption,” Dearden, of the Stop Trump Coalition, told Newsweek.

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Currently, Prime Minister May finds herself in a political mess over her mostly incompetent handling of Brexit. She is out of favor with her own conservative party members as well as the opposition. May is hoping to make a lucrative post-Brexit trade deal with the United States for her government. President Trump expressed his hopes of such a deal in previous discussions with Prime Minister May.

Dearden and his Stop Trump Coalition expect to gain support for protests against Trump’s visit using the left’s favorite issue – climate change

He hopes to leverage the recent Extinction Rebellion protests against climate change, which brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets in London and across the U.K., for the movement against Trump’s state visit.

“I’d really hope his visit will become a magnet for all those who want radical climate action to be undertaken, because Trump, after all, is a symbol of climate change denial globally—one of the reasons we see him as one of the most dangerous men in the world at this time,” Dearden said

Another #Resistance group, Stand Up to Trump, issued a press release chock full of hyperbole. Promising to “flood the capital with hundreds of thousands of protesters”, he was blamed for global unrest at the hands of fascists and racists. In other words, the group used the usual charges made by leftists both here at home and abroad.

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The Queen normally only receives one or two heads of state each year. A formal dinner and speeches are standard procedure.

There is usually a state banquet, and a visit to – and speeches at – the Houses of Parliament may be included. The Speaker of the House of Commons is one of three “key holders” to Westminster Hall, and as such, effectively holds a veto over who addresses Parliament.

So far, it is not known if a formal request has been made on behalf of President Trump to speak to the Houses of Parliament. Commons Speaker John Bercow has expressed his disapproval in the past of that idea.

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Beege Welborn 5:00 PM | December 24, 2024
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