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Topics: Donald Trump, Royal Family, UK News, US News
Joe Harker
Topics: Donald Trump, Royal Family, UK News, US News
Donald Trump is making his second state visit to the UK, and security has got to be locked in to avoid an international incident.
The US president is not exactly popular among many Brits, and there will be plenty of people lining the streets to let Trump know exactly how they feel about him.
When he last had a state visit in 2019 over 250,000 people showed up to protest against him, and this time around campaigners have said they are planning for an 'even bigger response', though given he'll only be here for a couple of days and staying in fewer locations there'll be less chances to demonstrate to him.
There is also the risk that lurking among the protesters is someone who is not there to demonstrate against Trump but try and take a shot at him.
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As such there's a lot of money going into making sure the state visit goes as smoothly as an event can when there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of people gathered to compare the invited guest to genitalia in a derogatory manner.
According to The Independent, the first state visit cost around £3.9 million, most of which went on policing, and in today's money six years later that's actually more like £5 million.
However, they also reported that the true cost of policing was actually closer to £14 million as police officers were drafted in from all over the UK to ensure they had sufficient numbers to handle event security.
If the event is going to be close to the last time then it's going to cost millions to handle security for the state visit.
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In addition to the standard police presence there will be armed response units waiting on standby, experts in various forms of attack and a major drone deployment in the skies.
The Daily Star reckons that with Trump here for two days, it'll cost somewhere between £8.5 and £12 million, which is simultaneously a lot of money if you're a person, and not a lot if you're a government.
Trump and his wife arrive in the UK today (16 September), and head for Windsor Castle to stay at the estate there.
Tomorrow (17 September) he'll meet the Prince and Princess of Wales, then see the King and Queen while a royal salute is performed.
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A carriage procession with members of the armed forces lining the route will follow, and there will be several more activities based around Windsor Castle including visiting the grave of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
He'll get a Red Arrows flyby before having a state dinner, then on Thursday (18 September) the Trumps will travel to Chequers, the country residence of the prime minister.
Once there, he'll have a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer, and when the rest of the state visit events are concluded, the Trumps will be heading back to the US.