Donald Trump’s second state visit to Britain has prompted organised protests and sharp criticism from campaigners and opposition politicians, with an activist on ITV’s Good Morning Britain branding the occasion “shameful and humiliating for the UK” as police prepared major security operations in Windsor and central London. The Stop Trump Coalition, which helped mobilise the vast demonstrations that accompanied Trump’s 2019 visit, has called a national march in London on Wednesday and a protest in Windsor around the president’s arrival on Tuesday evening. The group’s spokesperson Zoe Gardner told the breakfast programme there is “an enormous line between a relationship and diplomacy with the United States, and letting this toddler come here and use our country as a theme park and honouring him with a red carpet and a banquet with the King,” adding: “There is miles between those two positions, and what we’re doing today is shameful and humiliating for the UK.” Organisers say they expect thousands to line the roads near Windsor Castle and gather in London for a “Trump Not Welcome” demonstration that will form at Portland Place and march to Parliament Square.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are due to land on Tuesday evening for two days of engagements centred on Windsor Castle, where King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host a state dinner. He will meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday for talks and a joint press conference before returning to Washington later that night, according to senior US officials who said the trip will be accompanied by announcements of more than $10 billion in commercial agreements spanning science and technology cooperation, civil nuclear power and defence technology. The White House briefers said several US technology executives will be in the president’s travelling party. The visit marks the first time a US president has been invited to two British state dinners, the first having been extended in 2019.
Thames Valley Police said armed officers, motorcade closures and specialist units including mounted, canine, drone and marine teams would be deployed around Windsor for the duration of the visit. Reporting in Spanish daily El País said ceremonial elements that would traditionally take place in central London have been moved to Windsor, with no parliamentary address planned and no Buckingham Palace programme, decisions intended in part to reduce the risk of public disorder and to simplify security around a smaller footprint. Police briefings cited by British media also referred to heightened threat levels around the royal residence during the event.
The Stop Trump Coalition has framed its protests as a challenge not only to the US president’s policies but also to the British government’s decision to extend a second state invitation. Its website lists a London assembly at 2 p.m. on Wednesday at Portland Place, followed by a rally at 5 p.m. in Parliament Square, and said further actions around Windsor could be announced as details of the visit become public. The coalition argues that the government is “rolling out the red carpet” for a leader it accuses of “denying climate science” and “siding with war criminals,” and has urged supporters of allied causes to join a broad-front demonstration in the capital.
Opposition to the visit has reached into Westminster. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he would boycott the state banquet, arguing that honouring the American president with a lavish dinner without pressing him to act to alleviate suffering in Gaza would be wrong. “I thought and prayed long and hard” about attending, he wrote, concluding, “on this occasion I must refuse.” He said Trump “more than anyone else” has the leverage to help secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages and criticised what he called the president’s “full support” for Benjamin Netanyahu. Davey added that while he believed Starmer was right to engage with Washington, he wanted the prime minister to be “tougher” on tariffs and Russia.
Wednesday’s London demonstration will reprise some of the iconography of previous mass protests. Campaigners have discussed the return of the “Trump baby” blimp, which floated above Parliament Square in 2019, and say they expect turnout to exceed the quarter of a million who marched six years ago. Gardner previously told the Guardian the coalition aims to unite activists “across a huge range of issues,” from migrant and refugee rights to LGBTQ equality, labour rights and opposition to what she called the “oligarchy” of tech billionaires. The coalition’s public materials advertise the route and timetable and advise attendees on stewarding and legal support.
The diplomatic agenda that Downing Street will seek to emphasise is expansive. US officials previewed a package of economic and technology initiatives they say will showcase a “particularly close” partnership and “advance mutual economic and foreign policy interests,” alongside a leaders’ discussion at Chequers or No 10 and a joint press appearance. Britain and the United States have been working on a science and technology partnership intended to deepen links between research institutions and private-sector innovation, and officials said civil nuclear collaboration would be part of the week’s announcements. British ministers have also signalled interest in cooperation on defence industry supply chains, with commercial signings expected during the trip.
Trump’s political presence in Britain has been increasingly contentious in the run-up to this week’s visit. Campaign groups have mounted visual stunts intended to dog his movements, including the guerrilla installation of a giant image near the US embassy linking the president to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein — a tactic aimed at generating viral footage as the motorcade passes. The Time magazine account of that campaign credited a group styling itself Everyone Hates Elon with commissioning and placing the image and said the episode came amid renewed scrutiny of the president’s decades-old social connections.
The domestic security backdrop is unusually charged. At the weekend, more than 100,000 people gathered in central London for a “Unite the Kingdom” march led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson — one of the largest right-wing demonstrations in recent years — with the Metropolitan Police reporting 26 officer injuries and at least two dozen arrests after groups broke away from agreed routes and scuffled with officers. That rally, which drew smaller counter-protests, has stretched public-order resources ahead of the American president’s arrival and ensured that Windsor policing plans involve mutual-aid support and contingency cordons.
For Starmer, the optics are delicate. The prime minister has cast the state visit as a chance to reinforce the UK-US alliance in security and trade, even as opponents criticise the symbolism of a second full ceremonial welcome. While Labour sources have said the relationship is indispensable and structured around shared democratic values and open markets, activists like Gardner insist the hosting is a political choice rather than a necessity. In her television appearance, Gardner accused Starmer of a “catastrophic” failure of judgement in extending the invitation and predicted “people lining the streets in Windsor” on Tuesday night and a large London protest on Wednesday.
For the palace, Windsor offers sterner control of space and sightlines than central London. The programme shared by media outlets suggests a reception by the Prince and Princess of Wales, formal greetings by the King and Queen, and the evening banquet in St George’s Hall, but without the Mall processional or balcony moments that in the past have acted as magnets for demonstrators. El País reported that moving elements away from the capital reduces the likelihood of set-piece confrontation and simplifies the “sterile zone” planners can maintain around the castle and Long Walk during arrivals and departures.
On the streets, the policing posture will combine reassurance and robust enforcement. Forces have appealed for the public’s cooperation with planned road closures, bag searches and exclusion areas in Windsor and along parts of the presidential route. The Independent’s live coverage reported that a “high threat level” was declared for Windsor in the run-up to the visit and carried organisers’ plans for local protests near the castle. In London, protest stewards say their march will move along a route historically used for large-scale demonstrations, with a rally at Parliament Square timed to coincide with the day’s political events.
Criticism of the invitation has emerged across civil-society groups. Global Justice Now and allied organisations have endorsed Wednesday’s march and have appealed for support to stage a “massive” visible repudiation of the visit. The coalition’s call-outs portray the event as a test of the UK’s tolerance for dissent after Parliament passed new public-order powers, and as an opportunity to press domestic demands on labour rights, migration policy and climate commitments while the world’s media follow the state visit.
While protesters prepare, the US delegation is leaning into an economic message. American officials have trailed sector-specific signings intended to show mutual benefit, saying the deals will concentrate on research-commercialisation pipelines, civil nuclear cooperation and defence industrial partnerships. The White House hopes that the optics of a second state banquet — rare in the annals of UK-US ties — will reinforce an image of continuity and strategic alignment despite policy differences over trade tariffs, Ukraine and the Middle East. British officials, for their part, have underlined the long view of the “special relationship” and the breadth of shared security interests within NATO.
The atmosphere around the trip remains febrile. In addition to the planned Stop Trump marches, smaller actions are expected in Windsor and in cities that featured on the president’s private itinerary earlier this summer, including in Scotland where past visits to Trump-owned golf properties drew localised protests. Activists and political leaders alike view the coming 48 hours as a test of how a UK government navigates ceremonial hospitality for a polarising ally while policing dissent and stewarding a sprawling security operation. The Independent’s live update described Wednesday’s programme as “historic” and previewed further colour from the Windsor banquet, while broadcasters prepared rolling coverage of the protests and the leaders’ press conference.
For those pushing back against the invitation, the rationale is blunt. “We are protesting against this undeserved state visit to make sure the world knows this is not done in our name,” a Stop Trump statement said in advance of the march, promising a visible repudiation on streets that in 2019 hosted one of the largest anti-Trump mobilisations outside the United States. The group’s logistics show a blueprint refined over years of mass demonstrations and adapted to a shortened, Windsor-heavy itinerary. For the government, the priority is to project stability and partnership, underline the promised wave of investment and scientific collaboration, and see the American president depart without public-order incidents becoming the story. The collision of those aims — pomp, politics and protest — will define how this visit is remembered: a moment of transactional diplomacy and economic headline-grabbing for ministers, and, for campaigners, a galvanising episode they argue should never have been staged.
