Like Brexit, but More Orange

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/opinion/donald-trump-britain-visit.html

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LONDON — When President Trump visits Britain this week, many people here will want to remind him — and the rest of the world — just how nauseating we think he is. He’s new money. He’s perma-tanned. He’s a former reality TV star. He’s American. He’s everything the British, snobs that we are, love to hate. And that’s before we even get started on his ghastly politics.

When it comes to making people feel that they don’t belong, nobody does it better than us. America may be the most powerful nation on earth, but Britain is still the snootiest.

We can be utterly charming when we choose. In 2011, when Barack Obama visited, we put on a great show. President Obama was cool and funny. He met Queen Elizabeth; he had a “sleepover” at Buckingham Palace; he was invited to address Parliament.

But back in 2011, Britain — and the world — was a different place. Nobody really talked about the European Union, aside from U.K. Independence Party bores. Our prime minister was David Cameron, a smooth, aristocratic former P.R. man, who was a conservative, but who revered Mr. Obama, as did most of the country.

Today, in 2018, Mr. Trump is poised to visit an altered nation. Two years ago, Britain voted to leave the European Union, in a referendum that reignited class war, pitting city dwellers against the countryside, the winners of globalization against the losers. Emotions are still raw, and the politics are still messy — witness this week’s Brexit-driven chaos within the government — but immediately after the referendum, tempers ran particularly high. So when Mr. Trump, then still a Republican candidate, arrived in Scotland the day after the referendum vote, and declared Brexit “a great thing,” Britain’s educated metropolitan class recoiled in horror. Then in November 2016, the unthinkable happened.

And so began a year of false starts. Britain’s new prime minister, the more middle-class Theresa May, offered Mr. Trump a state visit early in his term; protests over the invitation, which coincided with the announcement of Mr. Trump’s travel ban targeting Muslim countries, kicked off immediately. British M.P.s vowed never to give Mr. Trump the opportunity to address Parliament. Mr. Trump’s visit was downgraded to a more prosaic-sounding “working trip.” He was meant to visit in January this year but then refused to turn up to open the new American Embassy in London. “He got the message,” said London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan.

This time, though, Mr. Trump really seems to be coming. In response, the Stop Trump coalition is planning what they’re describing as a “carnival of resistance.” Tens of thousands of people are expected to join the protests. There will be a parade in drag, a Vegans Against Trump Bloc and a women’s march, during which pots and pans will be banged on.

It’s worth asking why France was better able to cope with Mr. Trump when he visited last year. The newly elected president, Emmanuel Macron, was quick to offer him a state visit. There were some protests but nothing major. Mr. Macron pulled out all the stops on Bastille Day and Mr. Trump seemed impressed.

Perhaps it’s that France is simply less class-obsessed. To Britons of a certain milieu, Mr. Trump is a bit grubby, a bit common, a bit — as Nancy Mitford, that chronicler of elite British life, would put it — “non-U,” (that is, non-upper class).

It also helped that Mr. Macron saw off Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election. France didn’t succumb to populism. Brexit Britain could only look on in envy, wondering what might have been. And now, many Britons see in Mr. Trump a reflection of the Brexit phenomenon, albeit a more orange and sordid one.

In preparation for his visit, some of our most hallowed institutions are being sealed off for fear that Mr. Trump will tarnish them with his presence. Plans are under wraps, but the president is not expected to have a meeting with the queen at Buckingham Palace, which is unusual. Instead, he is scheduled to meet Her Majesty behind closed doors at Windsor Castle. The Duchess of Sussex — or as the new American member of the royal family was known before her marriage to Prince Harry, Meghan Markle — has made it obvious that she does not like Mr. Trump. It is unclear yet whether she will grace him with her presence.

Mr. Trump is not expected to meet the prime minister at Downing Street but will dine with her at her country retreat, Chequers. He is expected to avoid much of London, a city which has become a bastion of both anti-Brexit and anti-Trump sentiment. Instead, he is likely to visit Blenheim Palace, the Oxfordshire birthplace of Winston Churchill, and then head to Scotland to visit his golf course.

The Stop Trump campaign says it intends to “shine a light on Trumpism” in Britain. It also claims it has never taken a position on Brexit. There is, of course, genuine disgust at many of the president’s policies. But Britain is also a country grappling with a lot of its own political anxieties at the moment and it seems fair to wonder if there is some projection going on.

Out of the hundred or so prominent signatories who have backed the Stop Trump campaign — a list that includes the pop star Lily Allen, the former Labour leader Ed Miliband and Mick Jagger’s ex-wife, Bianca — the overwhelming majority are pro-European Union. One gets the sense that the campaign’s members hope that if they can stop Mr. Trump — whatever that may mean — they can stop Brexit too. Or at the very least, they can unite the nation against the horror in the White House.

But just because the Stop Trump movement, like the Stop Brexit movement, shouts loudest, it doesn’t mean it speaks for the nation. Quite a lot of Britons, like quite a lot of Americans, don’t abhor Mr. Trump and everything he stands for. Many would rather welcome him if only because it makes diplomatic sense.

In February, a YouGov poll found that 45 percent of Britons supported a state visit by Mr. Trump, against 39 percent who opposed it. And not everybody is planning on protesting Mr. Trump’s arrival: in Oxfordshire, a barman has said he would happily welcome Mr. Trump in, shake his hand and serve him a free drink. If that happens, it would horrify the snobs, but it could turn out to be the most diplomatic gesture of the entire trip.

Many Britons recognize that Mr. Trump may still be a useful ally. We are snooty but we are also pragmatic. Britain could do with friends right now — even vulgar ones.

Lara Prendergast (@laraprendergast) is an assistant editor at The Spectator.

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