From the very outset, the British strategy for the visit of President Donald Trump had been a simple one: just push the boat out. In the event, it was more of an aircraft carrier.
All State visits are special but this one has taken specialness to a new level, as the President himself acknowledged at last night’s State Banquet. ‘This is truly one of the highest honours of my life,’ he said in a speech rich in praise for both the King and Britain.
No detail was too tiny. Even the after-dinner cognac had been chosen from 1912, the year of Mr Trump’s mother’s birth, while the port was from 1945, a nod to his election as America’s 45th President. No matter that he is teetotal. It’s the thought that counts.
At every turn, there was a fresh opportunity for Mr Trump to deploy his catchphrase for this tour: ‘Unprecedented’. Hence the largest Guard of Honour ever for a state visitor or a Trump-friendly carriage procession, in place of the traditional route.
And that was just in the first half-hour. By mid-afternoon, after a light lunch and a private wreath-laying at the tomb of Elizabeth II, there was a further tri-Service military display (yup, unprecedented).
This culminated in a Trooping the Colour-style flypast by the Red Arrows which thrilled the guest of honour.
We normally see this sort of thing once a year at the Sovereign’s Birthday Parade.
Yesterday, however, we were treated to a one-off hybrid version: Trooping the Donald.
Indeed, there was so much uniformed action going on yesterday that the US delegation might have come away with the impression that they are the guests of some vast military superpower, rather than a depleted nation with its forces at a 300-year low.
Never mind. It was all about the optics. And here inside the walls of Windsor Castle and its hermetically-sealed estate, they were exactly what both governments wanted.
To have a second State visit is, indeed, unprecedented for a US President (though not, it must be said, for a world leader; the former Queen of Denmark, for example, was a double-visitor).
Windsor was the only choice, given that Buckingham Palace is a building site and, in any case, the Palace hosted Mr Trump’s first State visit in 2019.
As it turned out, William the Conqueror’s fortress was the perfect location for the House of Windsor to lay on this lavish show of relentless bonhomie.
Having spent the previous evening at the palatial US Embassy residence on the edge of London’s Regent’s Park, Donald and Melania Trump came into Windsor by helicopter, the Heathrow air traffic having been diverted during the arrival of the Marine One chopper, plus its decoy.
They landed in the old Rose Garden, next to Windsor’s old Walled Garden.
The Prince and Princess of Wales stepped forth to do the initial welcome, as tradition dictates. ‘Beautiful,’ the President could be heard saying to the princess, though it was unclear to what or whom he was referring.
The Trumps were then greeted by the King on the steps of Victoria House, home of the head gardener back in the days when Windsor grew its own food.
Once the helicopters had wound down and were no longer going to scare the horses, a full processional team from the Royal Mews pulled up for the grand parade up to the castle. Nothing unusual had this been a ‘normal’ Windsor State visit.
But that would start down by the Thames on the edge of town and wend its way up the High Street, past McDonald’s, WH Smith and cheering crowds.
That was never on the cards. The Secret Service would not countenance any President being conveyed on public roads in an elderly vehicle made of wood and leather.
However, a drive through Windsor’s empty, ring-fenced Home Park was deemed secure.
It had been safe enough for President Ronald Reagan to go riding with the late Queen in 1982 and so it would be ok for Mr Trump – except there would be more than two horses this time around.
More than 100, in fact, by the time the Household Cavalry joined in at either end.
The Irish State Coach duly appeared for the two heads of state, followed by the Scottish State Coach for the Queen and the First Lady and three landaus for the Waleses, plus the most senior members of a presidential entourage.
And off they all set through the park, watched only by the 1,100 servicemen and women lining the mile-and-a-half route, plus a curious herd of Jersey cows from the Windsor farms.
The King will almost certainly have pointed out the nine-hole Windsor golf course to his passenger.
As they passed Frogmore House and its royal burial ground (where the Duchess of Kent had been laid to rest the day before), he may not have pointed out Frogmore Cottage, former home of the Sussexes who are no fans of Mr Trump.
As the procession came through the George IV Gate and looped the mighty Quadrangle, both anthems came forth.
The King then invited Mr Trump to inspect an extra-large Guard of Honour, drawn from three regiments of Foot Guards rather than the usual one.
The monarch very pointedly ushered the President in front of him and then stood back, making it quite clear that the guest goes first.
A lot of rot was spoken after Mr Trump’s first visit here in 2018, when his critics panned him for walking ahead of the late Queen, even though he had been entirely correct.
Yesterday, he took his time, pausing several times to compliment his escort, Lt-Col Storm Green of the Coldstream Guards.
Looking on from the steps of the Equerries’ Entrance were the two sets of officials who had put all this together, the US team led by new US ambassador Warren Stephens.
This would have been a career high, too, for his erstwhile opposite number, Lord Mandelson, but the resignation-prone Labour peer has been hastily replaced for this trip by deputy British ambassador in Washington, James Roscoe.
The King and Queen then led the Trumps inside to their turreted quarters overlooking the Long Walk, prior to a light lunch and an exhibition of Royal Collection treasures with a UK/US theme.
Mr Trump had been keen to see some of the key documents surrounding the American Revolution, including George III’s doom-laden ‘America is lost!’ essay.
This enthralling exhibition included souvenirs from the first British State visit to the US, when the King’s grandfather, George VI, visited President Roosevelt on the eve of the Second World War.
Here, too, was the ticker-tape from the telegram from Abraham Lincoln to Queen Victoria, consoling her after the death of Prince Albert.
The Princess of Wales was transfixed. ‘When you look in the future, this will be emails and text message communications,’ she observed.
‘It’s going to look very different.’
Seeing it all laid out, Mr Trump noted that it was ‘fantastic’ and ‘the real deal’. Beyond that, however, he was clearly not going to share his thoughts in the presence of the media.
Just as he had been on his last State visit in 2019, he was evidently determined to err on the side of caution and maintain a polite, dignified silence, even on social media.
He was equally respectful when he and the First Lady paid their respects at the tomb of Elizabeth II in St George’s Chapel.
The couple spent ten minutes inside the tiny King George VI Memorial Chapel, with no minders and no cameras.
They emerged to hear a short choir recital and listened earnestly as Chapter Clerk Charlotte Manley gave them a tour, which included the grave of Henry VIII. As Mr Trump remarked to the Dean of Windsor at the end: ‘This was a great honour.’
That is precisely the sentiment which the King, his ministers and his staff hoped to invoke.
Yesterday was about presenting a vision of Britain which Mr Trump adores, culminating in a medieval hall full of suits of armour, a table laid with gold plates (each meticulously spaced 16 ¼ inches apart), vanilla ice cream on the menu and with the monarch saluting the President’s ‘personal commitment to finding solutions to some of the world’s most intractable conflicts’.
Job done on the royal charm front, it’s now over to the politicians. Expect presidential volume levels to return to normal today after Mr Trump and Sir Keir Starmer talk politics at Chequers.
