It is the British government that invites heads of state on the queen’s behalf, but it is the queen who acts as personal hostess. In most cases, that involves lavish pomp and ceremony and a stay of several days at the queen’s official residence, Buckingham Palace.I ask you, would you want Trump staying in your palace...er...house? I would not want Trump to visit my humble abode.
Theresa May's invitation to Trump for a state visit to London was beyond stupid. There are petitions against Trump with thousands of signatures, and there will be protests if he goes ahead with plans for the visit. Trump will be a pariah in England and in many countries around the world. My guess is Trump will not go. He lusts for acclamation by crowds, but he fears protests.
President Donald Trump will not head to Milwaukee for a previously scheduled visit of a Harley-Davidson factory after the company decided it wasn’t comfortable hosting him amid planned protests, an administration official said Tuesday, January 31st.Ha ha! Who us? Trump is not coming here. H/T to Charles Pierce for the link,
....
Harley-Davidson issued a statement Tuesday night saying they “don’t have, nor did we have, a scheduled visit from the President this week at any of our facilities.”
Trump will not only be a pariah around the world, but he will be unwelcome in many places in the US, because protests will follow him wherever he goes, some large and some small.
I still miss Molly Ivins and long for her commentary on present day politics. You can't make this stuff up.
“There are two kinds of humor,” she told People magazine. One was the kind “that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity,” she said. “The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That’s what I do.”UPDATE: The number of signatures on the petition protesting Trump's visit is now over a million, and Parliament will take up the matter later this month.
UPDATE 2: We can but hope that if Trump's state visit to England takes place, he will not shake hands with the Queen as he did with Neil Gorsuch.
From RUSS:
ReplyDeleteI can't bear to see Trump casting his greasy shadow on the hallowed walls of the White House, and the same goes for him in Buckingham Palace.
Still, I think I understand what Theresa May is doing. By exiting the European Union, Britain is going far out on a lonely limb and needs to ensure it has all the allies and trading partners it can get, in order to survive in the world economy.
Trump's mother was British (from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland) and greatly admired the Queen; consequently, Trump himself has a soft spot for the Queen. So that is the ace up Britain's sleeve: and Mrs. May is quite right, from a diplomatic angle, to use it to ensure her country's welfare, economic and otherwise.
The dutiful Queen will of course do whatever her Government advises; and in 60+ years on the throne, she has already entertained who knows how many dictators and humbugs as part of her job - Idi Amin and Nicolae Ceausescu, to name but two. Though privately, I suspect she will be holding her nose. She lived through the Blitz - surely she recognizes a fascist when she sees one.
But like it or not, Britain needs good links with the U.S., and we all want the Special Relationship to continue despite the current occupant of the White House. So the question is a much larger one than the invitation list for dinner at your house or mine.
The Queen will do her duty, as she's done these many years, but that she's concerned about her subjects who will be demonstrating against Trump at the palace is no surprise. Aside from the scorn she may feel for the uncouth Trump, she is torn because of the backlash against the visit.
DeleteI fully understand why May issued the invitation, since the UK will be on their own, once they leave the EU. In the end, the decision is not the Queen's.
There isn't enough hand sanitizer in the world that would get me to not feel creepy after touching Trump's hand.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the time Thomas Mann's friend called Bela Bartok to see if he could visit him, explaining that he had been invited to a state dinner but it would mean he would have to be introduced to the local fascists and the Nazi diplomats. Bartok said, "How remarkable, I got an invitation to that dinner and I'm in dispose, too."
Good story. If the Queen is wearing gloves when she shakes Trump's hand, she will probably discard them afterward.
Delete". . . he will not shake hands with the Queen as he did with Neil Gorsuch."
ReplyDeleteBut will he try to hold her hand if he encounters a scary set of stairs?
Paul (A.)
Ha ha. If Trump dares, the Queen will pull her hand away with the speed of lightning. She's no Theresa May.
DeleteThe only connection here is the BBC, but their reporter went to Arizona to find a GOP official who would explain or express any support for Trump.
ReplyDeleteNobody, and I mean nobody, would talk to them. Nobody. At. All.
Rmj, I don't understand. Did you mean to post a link?
DeleteFrom Russ:
ReplyDeleteWow, the body language in that handshake between Gorsuch and Trump. Looks to me like the judge did NOT want a picture of him and the monster in a bear hug. How very interesting.