Chicago – September 17, 2025
US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are in the United Kingdom for a historic second state visit. They were greeted after landing in London yesterday by dignitaries and members of the Royal Air Force.
• Later today, the president and first lady will travel to Windsor Castle, where they will be welcomed by King Charles III and Queen Camilla before a day of pomp and pageantry.
• The British Ministry of Defense said it will be “the largest military ceremonial welcome for a state visit to the UK in living memory,” with unprecedented “scale and spectacle.”
Trump’s two-day agenda begins with a carriage procession through the Windsor Castle estate, escorted by mounted cavalry, as part of a full ceremonial welcome. From the castle’s east lawn, the first couple will witness a flyover by the Royal Air Force’s aerobatic team, the Red Arrows, and a military ceremony known as a “beating retreat” — neither of which has ever been deployed during a state visit before. Then comes the multi-course banquet at St George’s Hall, complete with toasts and speeches, beneath a ceiling decorated with the coats of arms of every single Knight of the Garter since the order was founded in the 14th century.
This combination of old-world luxury and military posturing is bound to please the president, especially if his recent Washington DC military parade and goldification of the Oval Office (which is now embellished with numerous gilded ornaments) are anything to go by. Visible status symbols matter in the Trump era. In fact, Wednesday’s royal parade seems like the very kind of reception he dreams of receiving at home — a notion surely not lost on US protesters who decried June’s DC parade under the banner “No Kings.”
