Want the best from VICE News in your inbox? Sign up here.Donald Trump is being welcomed by cheering crowds during his state visit to the U.K. — at least according to his own account of events in London.On Tuesday, the president said he was greeted warmly by thousands of enthusiastic supporters as he traveled through the city's streets. Unfortunately for Trump, all the journalists and news crews covering his trip appear to have witnessed something rather different.
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Perhaps the U.S. president is confusing the word “cheering” with “jeering,” because he also claimed Monday that predicted protests against his visit had not materialized.And yet:
When asked about the protests on Tuesday, Trump described them as “a very, very small group of people put in for political reasons.”It was a surprising way of describing this:
While protest organizers may have been hoping for a larger turnout, there were still tens of thousands of people protesting in Trafalgar Square Tuesday morning, where opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and a number of other prominent Labour lawmakers addressed the crowd.Protestors also rolled out the Trump Baby blimp again, which was joined this year by a 16-foot statue of Trump sitting on a toilet:
During his press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump was asked about Brexit but told the reporter he “doesn’t like to take positions on things like” that. Seconds later he suggested Britain should crash out of the EU with no deal in October, and praised May’s handling of the Brexit process — which has been widely panned as shambolic.Trump also offered further insight into who he thinks should be the U.K.’s next prime minister, having already stirred anger by endorsing Boris Johnson prior to landing in the country."I know Boris, I like him, I've liked him for a long time. I know [Foreign Secretary] Jeremy [Hunt], I think he'd do a very good job. I don't know [Environment Secretary] Michael [Gove]. Would he do a good job, Jeremy?” Trump asked Hunt, who was sitting in the front row of the press conference.
While Trump says he doesn’t know Gove, the president was interviewed by the Brexit campaigner in January 2017 for a fawning Times article that praised Trump’s intelligence.There will be a further chance for Trump’s cheering supporters to appear when the president visits Portsmouth tomorrow for a commemoration of the D-Day landings before he flies to Ireland where there are a lot more people awaiting his arrival.Cover Image: A giant balloon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump as an orange baby floats above anti-Trump demonstrators in Parliament Square outside the Houses of Parliament in London on June 4, 2019. (ISABEL INFANTES/AFP/Getty Images)