--- title: Trump Heads to U.K. for 2nd State Visit. Here's What to Expect description: Britain is giving Trump something no U.S. leader has ever received: a second state visit, including an elaborate royal family welcome canonical: https://time.com/7317411/trump-uk-state-visit-schedule-royals/ author: Nik Popli article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-15T19:55:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:27.429Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Heads to U.K. for 2nd State Visit. Here's What to Expect og:description: Britain is giving Trump something no U.S. leader has ever received: a second state visit, including an elaborate royal family welcome og:url: https://time.com/7317411/trump-uk-state-visit-schedule-royals/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8728b812876e44b9/6998c9c693610cde3bc2ffa9/GettyImages-1148072187.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: BRITAIN-US-ROYALS-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Heads to U.K. for 2nd State Visit. Here's What to Expect twitter:description: Britain is giving Trump something no U.S. leader has ever received: a second state visit, including an elaborate royal family welcome twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8728b812876e44b9/6998c9c693610cde3bc2ffa9/GettyImages-1148072187.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Set to Return to Britain for Unprecedented Second State Visit > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Sep 15, 2025 7:55 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pose with Britain's then-Prince Charles and his wife Camilla ahead of a dinner on June 4, 2019 during Trump's first state visit to the UK. U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pose with Britain's then-Prince Charles and his wife Camilla ahead of a dinner on June 4, 2019 during Trump's first state visit to the UK. Chris Jackson–pool/AFP via Getty Images  by [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Sep 15, 2025 7:55 PM UTC Britain is preparing to welcome President Donald Trump with a distinction no American leader has ever received: a [second state visit](https://time.com/7302086/trump-royal-family-relationship-state-visit-united-kingdom/). When Trump arrives at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, he will be greeted by the Prince and Princess of Wales and then [King Charles III](https://time.com/6276970/king-charles-iii-oddness-coronation/) and Queen Camilla with the full trappings of royal ceremony—a guard of honor, a carriage procession, and a banquet at the Waterloo Table. Such a spectacle is considered the United Kingdom’s highest form of diplomatic hospitality, and one that American Presidents do not usually experience twice. Subsequent visits to the United Kingdom are more normally recognized with tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W. Bush in 2008 and Barack Obama in 2016\. The decision to once again fete Trump, a longtime admirer of the British royal family, underscores Britain’s calculation that the unique honor may help smooth ties at a delicate diplomatic moment. Trump will be accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, during the three-day visit. Trump was last invited for a state visit in 2019 during his first term, when he was hosted by Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. For British Prime Minister [Keir Starmer](https://time.com/7300145/britain-starmer-pm-wasted-year/), the unprecedented gesture appears to be an attempt to bind an unpredictable partner more tightly to Britain’s side while avoiding the trade frictions and diplomatic rifts that have dogged some of America’s other allies since Trump’s return to power. During a meeting at the White House in February, Starmer hand-delivered to Trump the invitation for a second state visit from the King. “It’s a great, great honor, and that says at Windsor,” Trump said as he praised the King. “That’s really something.”  U.S. President Donald Trump holds a letter from Britain's King Charles III during a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office on February 27, 2025. Jim Watson–AFP via Getty Images Trump’s visit is expected to draw large protests, including a “Trump Not Welcome” demonstration in London on Wednesday organized by the Stop Trump Coalition, the same group that protested his visit in 2018 and drew around 250,000 attendees. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said he will boycott the banquet for Trump's state visit to "send a message" to the U.S. president and Starmer over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Trump's latest visit comes on the heels of a massive anti-migrant protest in London over the weekend organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson. The "“Unite the Kingdom” rally drew [more than 110,000 people](https://apnews.com/article/london-protests-far-right-anti-racism-uk-e4c7bfd7d7fda25b3c4ef8ef7e0a2f53), spawning clashes with police and dozens of arrests. **Read more**: [_U.K. Urged to Sanction Musk After ‘Dangerous Remarks’ at Anti-Migrant Rally_](https://time.com/7317238/elon-musk-sanctions-united-kingdom-prime-minister-protest-speech/) Here’s what to know about Trump’s second state visit to Britain. ## A personal fascination Trump has long been fixated by the British monarchy, which he attributes in part to his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, who emigrated from Scotland and insisted on watching every televised appearance by Queen Elizabeth II. "She was a big fan of the queen, I have to tell you," Trump told podcaster Miranda Devine in July. "And anytime the queen was on television, my mother liked watching. She said, 'Oh, the queen's on.'" Trump has since admired the Royals and attempted to become friends with the family. As a real estate developer in the 1980s, he touted his connection to the Royals after hosting Prince Charles for tea at Mar-a-Lago. Later, he pursued Princess Diana with grand gestures and once lamented in a memoir that he had never had the chance to court her. "I only have one regret in the women department—that I never had the opportunity to court Lady Diana Spencer,” he wrote in his 1997 book [_The Art of the Comeback_](https://archive.org/details/the-art-of-comeback-donald-trump/page/142/mode/2up?view=theater&q=diana)_._ After meeting the Queen in his first term, Trump said he felt a sense of awe: "I was walking up and I was thinking, 'Can you imagine my mother seeing the scene?'" Trump said in an [interview](https://time.com/5339439/donald-trump-queen-elizabeth-piers-morgan/) with Piers Morgan in 2018. "She is so sharp, so wise, so beautiful,” he added.  Trump sits with Queen Elizabeth II as they attend the D-Day Commemorations on June 5, 2019 in Portsmouth, England. Dan Kitwood–Getty Images) In 2023, President Joe Biden, who had long held a discomfort with the British monarchy, opted to [not attend](https://time.com/6260313/biden-king-charles-coronation/) King Charles’ [coronation](https://time.com/6277790/the-visual-parallels-between-elizabeth-ii-and-charles-iiis-coronations/). But Trump made clear he saw the event differently. "I think it's a very important event, I think it's a great thing," he said of the coronation during an [interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqI2M4jBliM) at the time with right-wing British parliamentarian Nigel Farage. "A lot of people talk about the monarchy, should you have it or should you not. I think it's a fantastic thing. It holds your country together, largely." ## An unprecedented second state visit Trump will become the first American president to be honored with two state visits to Britain, a distinction that underscores both his unusual bond with the royal family and Starmer’s desire to keep close ties with Washington. In her seven decades on the throne, [Queen Elizabeth II](https://time.com/4619423/queen-elizabeth-dies/) has hosted only three other American presidents for official state visits—Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Obama—and none of them were invited to return a second time. Trump’s first came in 2019, when he was received at Buckingham Palace by the late Queen, who presided over a banquet in his honor and rode with him in a gilded carriage down the Mall. “This has never happened before; this is unprecedented,” Starmer said in the Oval Office in February when he delivered the written invitation from King Charles.  U.S. President Donald Trump inspects an honour guard during a welcome ceremony at Buckingham Palace on June 3, 2019, during his first state visit to the United Kingdom. Mandel Ngan–AFP via Getty Images Trump and his wife Melania will arrive in the United Kingdom on Tuesday evening, but the pageantry will begin on Wednesday. They will first be greeted by the Prince and Princess of Wales—William and Catherine—and will then meet with King Charles and Queen Camilla as a royal salute is fired from Windsor Castle’s lawn. Afterwards, they will board carriages and proceed through the Windsor estate toward the castle. Trump and the first lady will have lunch with the extended royal family, view items from the royal collection in the Green Drawing Room, and then lay a wreath at the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II in St. George’s Chapel. In the evening, they will attend a state banquet at Windsor Castle. Melania will also join Camilla for a tour of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House and the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. She will also attend a scouting event on the castle’s grounds with Kate on Thursday. ## What Britain hopes to get out of Trump's visit After the pageantry in Windsor, attention will shift on Thursday when Trump meets Starmer at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat. There, the two leaders are expected to discuss a series of difficult issues: finalizing the terms of a long-discussed trade arrangement, aligning approaches to the war in Ukraine, and expanding cooperation on energy security. The U.S. and Britain also plan to announce more than $10 billion in economic deals during Trump’s visit, Bloomberg[reported](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-15/trump-to-unveil-over-10-billion-in-economic-deals-on-uk-visit?taid=68c83afba3d0e600013d159b&utm%5Fcampaign=trueanthem&utm%5Fcontent=business&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=twitter). Starmer has so far managed to shield the United Kingdom from the kinds of punishing tariffs that Trump has levied on other allies, but he’s being urged by British lawmakers to secure that exemption more firmly, according to a [report](https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/365/business-and-trade-committee/news/209278/as-trump-visits-the-uk-for-an-unprecedented-second-state-visit-its-time-for-maximum-pressure-to-secure-trade-and-technology-alliance/) by the Business and Trade Committee, a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. "It is however now vital that government maximises pressure on the United States, beginning and following the president's state visit, to agree final terms for a lasting economic prosperity deal to end the threat of future sectoral tariffs, maximise predictability and that where the UK has secured terms which are second best to the EU, we aim to improve them," the Committee said in its report. Starmer is also pressing to lock in the details of a new trade pact that could give British exporters broader access to American markets while protecting politically sensitive industries. On energy, he wants to build on the nuclear cooperation agreement signed in July and turn it into concrete projects that could ease Britain’s soaring costs and accelerate its transition toward renewables. The British prime minister is also expected to seek reassurance on security as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. Starmer and his advisers want to keep Trump committed to NATO and to provide security guarantees to Ukraine if a peace deal is reached with Russia. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7317411/trump-uk-state-visit-schedule-royals/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7317411/trump-uk-state-visit-schedule-royals/"},"headline":"Trump Set to Return to Britain for Unprecedented Second State Visit","datePublished":"2025-09-15T19:55:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:51:27.429Z","description":"Britain is betting Trump's admiration of the British royal family will help smooth ties at a delicate moment","url":"https://time.com/7317411/trump-uk-state-visit-schedule-royals/","keywords":["Donald Trump","News Desk","News desk edits"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8728b812876e44b9/6998c9c693610cde3bc2ffa9/GettyImages-1148072187.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nik Popli","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/nik-popli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8728b812876e44b9/6998c9c693610cde3bc2ffa9/GettyImages-1148072187.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"BRITAIN-US-ROYALS-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY","caption":"BRITAIN-US-ROYALS-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY","creditText":"Chris Jackson–pool/AFP via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7317411/trump-uk-state-visit-schedule-royals/","name":"Trump Set to Return to Britain for Unprecedented Second State Visit"}}]}] ```