Too bad President Trump can’t run for prime minister of Britain. He arrived in London for his long-awaited state visit just as Britons showed themselves to be a lot Trumpier than the elites have been suggesting.
Oh, sure, the leftist louts in London hauled out their 20-foot “Baby Trump” balloon, showing the president in diapers. Another, showing Trump tweeting while on a gold toilet, was reportedly being readied. Protesters are out in force.
The far more meaningful “demonstration,” though, took place May 23. That’s when Britons elected a new delegation to the European Parliament. In a stunning turnout, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party just trounced the establishment.
Farage’s party won 29 seats — more than double the number secured by the Labour and Conservative parties combined. Bear in mind that Farage is sometimes called the British Trump. The pair have been political pals since bonding over Brexit in 2016.
No wonder Queen Elizabeth II was all smiles when Trump and first lady Melania Trump bounded out of the Marine One helicopter at Buckingham Palace — a 41-gun salute booming from horse-drawn cannons.
My own theory is that Her Majesty is hoping someone can tell her what’s going on in her own country. And reassure her that if Brexit does happen, America will be there with a trade deal and other cooperation with the newly independent country.
Trump, after all, “towers over Westminster,” as the London Spectator magazine put it, referring to the seat of Britain’s government. Prime Minister Theresa May will be gone from office Friday, forced out by her own party. Her meeting with Trump, if it happens, will be glancing.
The Labour Party, meantime, has become riddled with anti-Semitism and charges of sexual harassment. It boycotted Elizabeth’s state dinner for Trump, as did the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.
Not to mention the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. The way the London Independent tells it, Trump launched via tweet from Air Force One an “extraordinary attack” on Khan. He called Khan a “stone cold loser” and — oof — likened him to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Of course, Trump launched those insults only after Khan described the president as “one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat” and suggested that he talks like the “fascists of the 20th century.”
Khan, in short, is a British never-Trumper. And no one launched these kinds of protests and insults when, say, the Communist Chinese party boss, Xi Jinping, paid his state visit.
On Tuesday, the anti-Trump faction kicks off the major protest of the visit, in Trafalgar Square. On Wednesday, Trump and members of the royal family will be at Portsmouth to start the 75th anniversary commemoration of D-Day. Compared to that, the protests will seem insignificant. And all of us will be reminded of the desperate moments when our countries shared a finest hour.