Trump, First Lady Meet Queen Elizabeth II

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s visit to Europe (all times local):

12:54 p.m.

Soon-to-depart Prime Minister Theresa May is not scheduled to have a formal one-on-one private meeting with President Donald Trump during the American leader’s state visit to Britain.

May’s office says the two leaders will meet Tuesday at 10 Downing St. accompanied by senior officials, and will also tour the Churchill War Rooms, Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s underground World War II headquarters.

Downing St. says there is “nothing unusual” about the arrangements.

The pomp-filled visit comes in the week May will step down as leader of the Conservative Party after failing to take Britain out of the European Union as planned. Britain will get a new prime minister within weeks after a party leadership contest.

Trump has slammed May’s handing of Brexit negotiations with the EU and said Conservative leadership contender Boris Johnson would make an “excellent” British leader.

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12:36 p.m.

President Donald Trump and his wife Melania were greeted on the grand lawn of Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II and inspected the Guard of Honor formed by the Grenadier Guards wearing the traditional bearskin hats.

Royal gun salutes were fired Monday from nearby Green Park and from the Tower of London as part of the pageantry accompanying an official state visit, one of the highest honors Britain can bestow on a foreign leaders.

The ceremony took place under clear blue skies on the spacious garden next to the 775-room palace that is the official residence of the queen.

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and his wife Camilla welcomed the Trumps as they walked down the steps of their helicopter.

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11:51 a.m.

President Donald Trump is poised to have lunch with Queen Elizabeth II.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump will begin their two-day state visit with a reception and lunch at Buckingham Palace on Monday.

Trump is expected to be greeted with significant protests throughout his time in London.

The lunch with the monarch should largely be free of the thorny political issues that await Trump later in his visit to London, including meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May just days before she steps aside as the head of her political party.

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10:10 a.m.

The Trump baby blimp could be headed for a museum.

The Museum of London says it wants to acquire a rubber inflatable depicting President Donald Trump as a giant screaming baby that has featured in protests against the U.S. leader around the world since its debut in London last year.

The blimp’s creators say they plan to fly it this week outside Parliament during Trump’s state visit.

The museum says it hopes to add the Trump blimp to its collection, along with an inflatable depicting London Mayor Sadiq Khan that has been flown by Trump supporters. The museum says it “hopes to reach out to both creators shortly.”

The president and the mayor have clashed in public, with Trump labelling Khan a “stone cold loser” in a tweet on Monday. Khan’s spokesman said “childish insults … should be beneath the President of the United States.”

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9:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have been honored at a small welcoming ceremony upon their arrival in the United Kingdom.

The president was met by the U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and other dignitaries. The president held his salute as he walked through 20 members of the guard that greeted him and was quickly escorted to the Marine One, the presidential helicopter.

They will be taken from Stansted Airport, north of London, into the center of Britain’s capital.

Trump kicked off the trip with a tweet blasting London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who says the American president should not get red-carpet treatment in Britain. Trump is expected to be greeted with significant protests throughout his time in London.

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9:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump has started his trip to Britain with an attack on London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who says the U.S. leader should not be honored with a state visit.

Moments before Air Force One landed at Stansted Airport near London, Trump tweeted that Khan was a “stone cold loser” who “by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London.”

Trump said Khan “should focus on crime in London, not me.”

In a newspaper column on Sunday, Khan said Trump was “one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat” from the far-right to liberal democracy.

Khan has been a frequent critic of Trump and gave permission for an inflatable blimp depicting the president as a screaming baby to be flown near Parliament during the president’s trip to the U.K. last year. Protesters plan to fly the blimp again during Trump’s three-day state visit.

Khan supporters call Trump racist for his attacks on London’s first Muslim mayor.

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8:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump has arrived in the U.K. on the first leg of a trip that will include commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day during a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery in France.

The agenda for Trump’s weeklong journey is largely ceremonial: a state visit and an audience with Queen Elizabeth II in London, D-Day commemoration ceremonies on both sides of the English Channel and his first presidential visit to Ireland.

But Trump’s visit also comes at a fraught time in British politics, with Prime Minister Theresa May stepping down as leader of the Conservative Party on June 7 over the country’s Brexit turmoil. Lawmakers in Parliament have repeatedly rejected May’s Brexit divorce deal with the European Union.

Trump will meet with May, but Monday’s focus will be on elaborate ceremonies honoring the president. It begins with Queen Elizabeth II holding a grand welcoming ceremony at Buckingham Palace, moves on to a formal tea with Prince Charles and ends with a sumptuous state banquet Monday night.

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6 a.m.

President Donald Trump is headed back to Europe, where on previous visits he has strained historic friendships and insulted his hosts. This time, he faces an ally in turmoil and a global call to renew democratic pacts.

The agenda for Trump’s weeklong journey is both ceremonial and official: a state visit and an audience with Queen Elizabeth II in London, D-Day commemoration ceremonies on both sides of the English Channel and his first presidential visit to Ireland, which will include a stay at his coastal golf club.

But the president will arrive at a precarious moment, as he faces a fresh round of impeachment fervor back home and uncertainty on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will step down days after Trump visits and French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to use the 75th anniversary of the World War II battle that turned the tide in Europe to call for strengthening the multinational ties the U.S. president has frayed.

Trump is to arrive in London on Monday for a two-day whirlwind of pomp, circumstance and protests, including meetings with the royal family and an extravagant state dinner at Buckingham Palace. He is likely to be shadowed by demonstrators, who during his last visit flooded the streets and flew an inflatable balloon depicting the president as a baby.

On his most recent European visit, last November in France, Trump faced strong criticism after skipping a ceremony at an American military cemetery to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I when rain grounded his helicopter.