US President Donald Trump cancelled his planned visit to London because he knew “he would not receive the love he believes he deserves,” it has been claimed.
The author of immediate bestseller ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,’ Michael Wolff, suggested the president was aware of the mass protests he would have been greeted with in London, so decided to cancel the visit.
His trip was planned for the end of February after UK Prime Minister Theresa May invited the Republican leader to the UK while visiting him at the White House soon after his inauguration in January last year.
It had already been scaled down from an official state visit – normally entailing a meeting with the Queen – to a much less pompous working visit.
A petition calling for the visit to be scrapped as it would be an “embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen” garnered a staggering 1.8 million signatures.
“I think he was probably supported in this decision by the people around him because they know bad things happen when this president does not receive the love he believes he deserves,” Wolff told Sky News.
“When he feels that people, again, are not according him proper respect, proper love, proper regard for him as a legitimate president, he goes crazy,” he added.
Trump has claimed he was no longer coming to visit the US’ historical ally because of his dismay at the price paid for the new US Embassy in London.
He tweeted on Thursday: “Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts,’ only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars,” the president tweeted.
“Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!”