Donald Trump – State Visit

On 3rd June Donald Trump arrived in the UK on a State visit.

The next day, as Trump went through to make his speech, an American woman behind him repeated to the press “US press only”. WHY? We are in the UK and our press have every right to be there!

Protesters, believed to number in their thousands, crowded into London’s government district, but were kept away from the areas where Trump was. Sadly there were some violent clashes, which seems to be a fairly common occurrence these days, between those protesting and those supporting Trump.

After Trump’s speech, whilst answering a question concerning Jeremy Corbyn and his protest, Trump stated that the day before “there were thousands of people on the streets cheering, and even coming over today there were thousands of people cheering”. He described it as having “tremendous spirit and love, there was great love”. He stated that he didn’t see any protests (because they were kept away from him!), and then went on to say he did see a protest today, a very small one, “put in for political reasons, so it was fake news”. Deja vu of his inauguration!

Francis Elliot of the Times asked Trump if he agreed with his Ambassador, that the entire economy needs to be on the table in a future trade deal, including the NHS. Trump replied that he thought we were going to “have a great and very comprehensive trade deal”. After being asked again if that would include our NHS he replied, “When you are dealing with trade everything is on the table, so NHS or anything else and a lot more than that, but everything will be on the table, absolutely”. Theresa May’s response was that “both sides negotiate and come to an agreement about what should or should not be in that trade deal”; which, I believe, is a diplomatic was of saying, on ya bike mate!

Trump (or more likely his advisers) obviously got the message that Brits would NOT be happy trading our NHS, as later that same day, in an interview with Piers Morgan, he did a big about turn, perhaps forgetting that his earlier speech was recorded, and stated that the NHS “is not something I would consider part of trade, that’s not trade”.

Now, it’s well known that Nigel Farage, when talking about the NHS, has stated that he thinks “we are going to have to move to an insurance based system”. It begs the question that IF Nigel Farage gets into power, will he change our NHS to an insurance based system, as with America? and will America then get their grubby little hands on it?

Despite having no representation in UK parliament, Farage said he would put together a “small panel of industrialists, dealmakers, people who’ve been involved in business at a senior level, and I intend to request a visit to go and see Bob Lighthizer and to have a conversation.” “And if we have to independently, as the Brexit Party, set up a blueprint for what needs to be done, we will.” Again, it begs the question, behind closed doors, will the NHS be on the table?

Another meeting on Trump’s visit was with the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar. Interestingly, Trump stated that they have millions of Irish in the United States, and he thought he knew most of them as they were his friends. Trump rambled on, saying the Varadkar will probably ask him about Brexit, and he thinks it’ll all work out very well, and carried on, “also for you, with your wall, with your border” and comparing the border in the US with the Irish border!!! But he says that he’s heard “it’s going to work out very well, I think it’s both going to work out well, it’s going to work out very well here”. Varadkar immediately informed Trump that the main thing they want to avoid of course is a border or wall.