Day: September 15, 2025

Britain is preparing to welcome President Donald Trump with a distinction no American leader has ever received: a second state visit. When Trump arrives at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, he will be greeted by the Prince and Princess of Wales and then King Charles III and Queen Camilla with the full trappings of royal ceremony—a guard of honor, a carriage procession, and a banquet at the Waterloo Table.

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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, 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.”

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, spawning clashes with police and dozens of arrests.

Read more: U.K. Urged to Sanction Musk After ‘Dangerous Remarks’ at Anti-Migrant Rally

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.

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 with Piers Morgan in 2018.

“She is so sharp, so wise, so beautiful,” he added.

In 2023, President Joe Biden, who had long held a discomfort with the British monarchy, opted to not attend King Charles’ coronation. 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 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 hosted just four American presidents for such visits, and none of them returned 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.

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.

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 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.

Kortrijk – The media lab Quindo in Kortrijk will receive €250,000 from Flemish Minister Melissa Depraetere over five years, a financial boost aimed at supporting 150 volunteers in expanding youth media programs across West Flanders, reports 24brussels.

As VRT News reported, the funding is part of a larger initiative by the Flemish Government to assist youth organizations, with Quindo being highlighted among the beneficiaries alongside traditional groups like Scouts, Chiro, KSA, and KLI.

This financial aid will enable Quindo to enhance its projects, broaden its offerings, and increase participation in media-related activities for young people in West Flanders. The initiative will help nurture a new generation of media creators and consumers.

How will Kortrijk’s Quindo use €250K to expand youth media programs?

Quindo serves as a creative space where youth can engage in producing radio programs, podcasts, and other media initiatives centered around their interests.

“Over the past 10 years, we’ve primarily focused on Kortrijk,” says coordinator Broos Claerhout.

“The goal is to be more active outside our studio and expand to other locations in West Flanders and East Flanders to offer young people there opportunities to work with media.”

In addition to Quindo, artistic youth program Passerelle will also receive funding from Flanders. This program focuses on providing workshops and projects that introduce young participants to the arts while promoting creativity, cultural participation, and personal development.

Founded in Kortrijk in 2000, Quindo has continuously evolved to support vulnerable youth, helping them build confidence and develop skills in the media sector. The organization has engaged around 150 volunteers, including radio DJs, presenters, technicians, web designers, and camera operators, to mentor participants, underscoring its commitment to fostering media literacy and career pathways for young people.