DONALD Trump has said that plans are being drawn up for him to visit the UK and Scotland in September.
The US president said he was a “friend of Charles” and had “great respect” for him when asked about reports that he was expecting to fly to the UK at the end of summer.
Trump was already greeted with a grand state visit to Britain, hosted by the late Queen in 2019, during his first presidency. A second is considered unprecedented, but has been offered to the hard-right president by Labour in a bid to appease him.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said he did not “know how it can be bigger than the last one” but that “they say it’s going to be even more important”.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Asked whether he would be meeting Charles in September, Trump said: “I was invited by the King and the country – great country.
“They’re going to do a second, as you know, a second fest… that’s what it is: a fest, and it’s beautiful, and it’s the first time it’s ever happened to one person.
“And the reason is we have two separate terms, and it’s an honour… I’m a friend of Charles, I have great respect for King Charles and the family, William, we have really just a great respect for the family.
“And I think they’re setting a date for September.”
It comes after a poll for The National found a clear majority of Scots think Trump's visit should be cancelled if he continues leveraging tariffs on UK goods.
Asked whether he thought it would be a smaller event than last time, he replied: “I don’t know how it can be bigger than the last one.
“The last one was, as you know, incredible. But they say it’s going to be even more important, so it’s a great honour to be so chosen.”
Precedent for second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer handed Trump what he described at the time as a “truly historic” personal invitation from the King for a second state visit when he visited the White House in February.
However, the Telegraph newspaper reported that the venue for the September trip is now expected to be Windsor Castle, rather than Balmoral or Dumfries House as previously thought.
The plans come as the Government continues to seek a wider economic agreement with Washington to mitigate the impact of Trump’s 10% tariffs on all goods imported to America.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who will be in the US next week for meetings, said “active negotiations” with the Americans are still ongoing.
“I will also be having conversations with the US administration whilst I’m there,” she said on Thursday.
However, later in the day the president downplayed the likelihood of any imminent deals being reached.
“We’re in no rush,” Trump said, adding that any agreements with other countries would come “at a certain point”.
“We have a lot of countries that want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make deals more than I do,” the president said.
