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Twitter erupts as Trump arrives late to meet Queen Elizabeth

He was visiting the birthplace of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.

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David Gilmour

Tech

Posted on Jul 13, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 11:11 am CDT

British monarch Queen Elizabeth II was spotted checking her watch on Friday as she patiently waited for President Donald Trump, who was late to their meeting, and the internet loves it.

Trump eventually arrived to meet the royal, part of his current visit to the U.K., but Twitter users were already outraged that the 92-year-old had been made to stand in the 80 degree heat and wait.

To be fair, Trump has had a packed itinerary. Besides the bilateral trade talks that took place Friday morning, the U.K. prime minister, Theresa May, had organized a range of activities that centered on the president’s British hero, World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

On Thursday evening, she held a black tie dinner for him at the 2,000 acre Blenheim Palace estate in Oxfordshire—Churchill’s birth and burial place. There, coincidentally, the Duke of Marlborough had set up an exhibition on Churchill, which the prime minister was keen to show Trump. In fact, U.K. press reported that the president was so fascinated by the exhibit that he delayed dinner for his 150 guests.

Before it was abruptly cut from the final itinerary, there had also been talk that Trump might even get to visit Churchill’s war room.

Knowing that the president idolizes the wartime leader, some have suggested that the British have crafted the entire visit to rub Trump’s ego ahead of the all-important trade talks.

So, on Friday, when White House press secretary Sarah Sanders shared a picture of Trump proudly sitting on the armchair formerly owned by the wartime leader, he, once again, broke the internet.

A complete hit with conservatives, who drew comparisons between the two, others criticized it.

https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1017811630690832384

https://twitter.com/KEOchuk/status/1017832897099821056

Still, if the Churchill tour was about warming up the president it might have worked.

In an interview with British tabloid newspaper The Sun, published Friday morning, Trump had said that a U.S. trade deal was off because he did not support the prime minister’s moderate plan to leave the European Union trade bloc. Hours later, in a press conference with May, and after having a better time that he’d initially expected, Trump backed down on harsh comments and then outright denied making them.

The trade deal’s fate, though, really hangs on the fragility and temperamental nature of Trump’s mood and, if he looks out his hotel window at the mass protests and demonstrations happening in London, it might well be called off once again.

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*First Published: Jul 13, 2018, 3:45 pm CDT

David Gilmour

David Gilmour is a reporter who specializes in national politics, internet culture, and technology.

David Gilmour