Campaigners are rallying for the "biggest protest in British history" on London's streets against Donald Trump's visit. It comes as the US President insisted he is "very popular" in the UK.
Trump has claimed he will travel to Britain for an official state visit in October this year, and that he was invited by Prime Minister Theresa May twice. At least 80,000 people have already joined Facebook group to take part in public demonstration.
David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, was among those calling for a large-scale demo. Responding to news of the visit, he wrote on Twitter: “To be met by the biggest protest this country has ever seen. Who’s in?”
Celebrities such as Stephen Fry, and organisations such as Abortion Support Network, Help Refugees and Operation Black Vote have all voice support for a huge protest.
Fry wrote on Twitter that he had thrown his support behind campaign group Top Trump Targets, adding: “We’re coming together to build a better Britain by standing with those Trump targets."
In a bizarre interview with TV presenter Piers Morgan over the weekend, Trump claimed: “I get so much fan mail from people in the UK.” In his first international television interview, Trump added: “[Britons] love my sense of security and what I’m saying about many different things… We get tremendous support from people in the UK.”
The meeting between Twitterdom’s two great self-publicists had been loudly hyped, with ITV trumpeting the many revelations Morgan had supposedly coaxed from the president. But the “exclusives” Morgan had bagged were not particularly ground-breaking.
The presenter appeared to believe he’d cajoled an apology out of Trump for infamously re-tweeting anti-Islam tweets from far-right group, Britain First. Trump would probably give a different account of the exchange, however. “You’re telling me about these people,” the president said. “I know nothing about these people.”
When Morgan mentioned Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan - who have been vocal in their criticism of Trump - he replied: “I don’t know the man.” As for calls to ban him from visiting Britain, he said: “Well, that’s their problem - I could very nicely stay home.”
Trump and Khan have clashed publicly on a number of occasions. Last year, Trump was scathing about the London mayor’s response to terrorist attacks in Westminster and London Bridge. He tweeted: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is 'no reason to be alarmed!”
Asked if he had received an invitation to the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle later this year, Trump replied: “Not that I know of.”
“I really want them to be happy. They look like a lovely couple,” he said, when pressed about disparaging comments that Markle previously made about the president. It is understood the couple may snub Trump by inviting former president Barack Obama, who is a friend of the prince.
The president, whose mother was born on the Hebridean island of Lewis in Scotland, added: “The real me is somebody that loves Britain, loves the UK. I love Scotland. One of the biggest problems I have in winning, I won’t be able to get back there so often. I would love to go there.”
Trump told Morgan that the EU has not “cracked up the way it is supposed to be,” and believes in climate change in so far as he accepts “there is a cooling and there is a heating.”
He added that he is not a feminist. “No, I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist,” he said. “I mean, I think that would be, maybe, going too far. I’m for women, I’m for men, I’m for everyone.”
The president added that it was a “crazy situation” that many people in the world waited for his tweets. He usually tweets himself, sometimes from bed, he said. When asked about whether he was lying in bed with his phone, thinking of how to wind people up, Trump said: “Well, perhaps sometimes in bed, perhaps sometimes at breakfast or lunch or whatever, but generally speaking during the early morning, or during the evening I can do whatever, but I am very busy during the day, very long hours. I am busy.”
Asked about eating burgers and drinking Coke, Trump, 71, said: “I eat fine food, really from some of the finest chefs in the world, I eat healthy food, I also have some of that food on occasion... I think I eat actually quite well.”
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