Buckingham palace confirms Trump’s second UK state visit in September

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is set to make a historic second state visit to the UK, likely in September, following a formal invitation from King Charles III, The New York Times reported, citing Buckingham Palace’s statement.

The King extended the invitation through a letter delivered by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a visit to the Oval Office in February. According to The New York Times, Trump relished his last state visit to Britain in 2019, when Queen Elizabeth II hosted him.

Trump state visit to the UK announced.

Windsor Castle 17-19 September. pic.twitter.com/37gcL1icOf

— Latika M Bourke (@latikambourke) July 13, 2025

The queen threw him a lavish banquet at Buckingham Palace and gave him a royal artillery salute. In a documentary about his political comeback, “The Art of the Surge,” Trump showed off a book of photos of himself and the queen, “who was fantastic, by the way”, he said.

But Trump picked a fight with London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is Muslim, just before his arrival, calling him a “stone-cold loser” on social media and accusing him of doing a terrible job of running Britain’s capital city, as per The New York Times.

Khan had described Trump as “just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat,” likening the president’s language to that used by “fascists of the 20th century”. He remains mayor, and there is little indication that their mutual antipathy has softened.

The timing of Trump’s visit makes it unlikely he will be accorded the honour of delivering a speech to Parliament, several British papers reported. It is usually not in session in late September because the country’s political parties hold their annual policy conferences during that period.

That could set up an awkward contrast with the visit of President Emmanuel Macron of France, who spoke to Parliament during his state visit last week. Like Macron, Trump will be hosted at Windsor Castle rather than Buckingham Palace, which is undergoing major renovations.

Meanwhile, recently, Trump on Saturday announced a 30 per cent tariff on goods from Mexico and the European Union starting August 1, intensifying trade tensions with two of the country’s top economic partners,

In separate letters posted on Truth Social, Trump informed Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about the tariff decision, citing border security and trade imbalances as key reasons, according to The Hill.

In his letter to Sheinbaum Pardo, Trump referenced the ongoing fentanyl crisis as a major concern behind the decision. “Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done is not enough”, the President wrote.

As The Hill noted, the US had previously imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Mexican goods, though Trump later exempted items covered under the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It remains unclear whether those exemptions will still apply after the new tariffs take effect on August 1. (ANI)