President Donald Trump has announced late Thursday that he will not be traveling to London and take part in the opening ceremony of the new U.S. embassy in the British capital.
The new U.S. embassy to Nine Elms was under construction for years The whole process started in 2008, then the State Department is under President George W. Bush announced that an agreement was signed with a real estate developer in order for the U.S. to purchase new property on UK soil.
“This has been a long and careful process, we looked at all our options, including renovation of our current building on Grosvenor Square. In the end, we realized that the goal of a modern, secure and environmentally sustainable Embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility,” Robert Tuttle at that time U.S. Ambassador in the UK said in a statement announcing the procurement.
President Donald Trump explained that the reason that he canceled the trip to London for officially opening the new U.S. embassy is that he is “not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts,’ only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars.”
However, The Guardian reported that Washington had signaled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would open the new embassy next month instead of Trump.
According to the newspaper’s sources, the real reason why Trump canceled the visit is the fear that protests will be held against him.
The fear of protests is quite real and probably will happen since U.S. and Britain relations are full of tension. The British Prime Minister Theresa May publicly criticized Trump regarding a video the President shared on Twitter where Muslims are doing violent acts, saying that it is “wrong” for a president of the multi-cultural nation to do that.
Trump has yet to announce official state visit to England.
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