President Trump received a royal welcome Monday from Queen Elizabeth II and reviewed the troops at Buckingham Palace with Prince Charles, in a genteel pivot after the president kicked off his state visit by hurling insults at the London mayor.
Mr. Trump and the queen walked alongside each other before Prince Charles escorted him to a double row of beefeaters as the queen, first lady Melania Trump and Camilla — the duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles’ wife — looked on from the top of the main steps.
Mr. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, watched from afar with Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson and top White House aides.
The captain of the guard, Hamish Hardy, offered a tour of the troops, some of whom spoke to the president, before the queen and first couple entered the palace with drums booming in the background.
Mr. Trump and the first lady then joined the queen for a tour of artifacts with obvious ties to the U.S., including an 18th-century map of New York and a portrait of George Washington.
Their tour continued at Westminster Abbey, where they laid a wreath at the tomb of The Unknown Warrior — an unidentified soldier from World War I — and visited the tombs of Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Sir Isaac Newton and professor Stephen Hawking.
Mr. Trump was awed by the age of the structure, repeating the year “1269” as the Very Rev. Dr. John Hall offered a history.
The ceremony and tour kicked off a long-delayed state visit from Mr. Trump, who is arriving at a thorny time for the U.K. before stopping in Ireland and then France for D-Day events.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is set to step down June 7 after failing to devise a successful “Brexit” plan for leaving the European Union, though she will stand beside Mr. Trump in a press conference on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump defended his support Sunday night for conservative Boris Johnson to replace Mrs. May as prime minister.
The president told the Sun newspaper that conservative Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, would be an “excellent” choice to replace Mrs. May.
U.K. Labor opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr. Trump’s comments about Mr. Johnson were an “unacceptable interference” in Britain’s affairs, though Mr. Trump said people asked him about it, so he answered.
“Don’t ask me the question if you don’t want me to talk about it,” Mr. Trump said late Sunday.
Mr. Trump also hasn’t been shy about weighing in on Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London and an arch nemesis of sorts.
The president knocked him as a “stone cold loser” moments before landing in the U.K. on Monday for his long-planned state visit.
Mr. Khan has sharply criticized Mr. Trump’s policies, including on climate and immigration, and said his country was wrong to “roll out the red carpet” for the president.
Mr. Trump responded in kind before Air Force One touched down, tweeting Mr. Khan had been “foolishly ’nasty’ to the visiting President of the United States.”
“He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me. Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, [Bill] de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job — only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit,” he tweeted.
Mr. Khan first gained Mr. Trump’s ire by allowing a “baby Trump” blimp to fly during his last visit to London. The blimp is expected to return for this visit.
The president continued to criticize the mayor as he stepped off Air Force One in London and was greeted by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who said Mr. Trump shared his “very strong views” about Mr. Khan with him on the tarmac.
“He mentioned to me some of his feelings about the mayor of London, which I saw subsequently he just tweeted out as well,” Mr. Hunt told the BBC.
Asked for details about what the president said, Mr. Hunt added: “He wasn’t exactly saying that he’s going to inviting Sadiq Khan for royal treatment at the White House anytime soon.”
“What he said to me was consistent with what was in his tweet, let’s put it like that,” Mr. Hunt said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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