Politics

Trump to visit the queen in state visit to the UK

Key Points
  • Buckingham Palace announces that President Trump has accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to visit the U.K.
President Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump are met by Britain's Queen Elizabeth as they arrive for tea at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, July 13, 2018. 
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Donald Trump will make a three-day state visit to the United Kingdom in early June.

Buckingham Palace announced Tuesday that Trump has accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to visit the U.K. starting on June 3, adding that he will be accompanied by first lady Melania Trump.

Further details of the state visit's itinerary will be announced in due course, the palace said in a statement issued two days after the queen's 93rd birthday.

The U.S. president will also hold talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May during the visit.

"(The U.K. and U.S.) do more together than any two nations in the world and we are both safer and more prosperous because of our cooperation," May said in a statement Tuesday. "The State Visit is an opportunity to strengthen our already close relationship in areas such as trade, investment, security and defense, and to discuss how we can build on these ties in the years ahead."

State visits to the U.K. happen when foreign leaders are invited to visit the queen. They are given a ceremonial welcome by the monarch and other members of the royal family and are usually hosted at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.

Trump has not made an official state visit to the U.K. during his presidency, but he joined the queen for tea at Windsor Castle in July.

The queen has previously hosted two state visits from U.S. presidents. Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, made a state visit to the U.K. in 2003, and Barack and Michelle Obama became the second presidential couple to be hosted by the queen in 2011.

Several other U.S. presidents have visited the queen during her reign, including President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and President Bill Clinton in 1995. The queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, have also made four state visits to the United States.