A protest outside London's US embassy. Photo: Jeff Gilbert / Alamy Stock Photo
As we all knew too well, Donald Trump had planned to visit the UK in February to open a new $1 billion US embassy in London. Presumably to the dismay of the British pro-Trump contingent, this trip has now apparently been cancelled. Trump took to his preferred medium – Twitter – to say he wasn’t a "big fan" of the embassy, and that "NO!" he would not cut the ribbon.His full tweet read: "Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am 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. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!"The "off location" he’s talking about is Vauxhall in south London, home to MI6, a ton of great gay bars and some of the most expensive properties in the capital. Also, the US embassy move was confirmed during President Bush's administration, not under Obama.
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BBC North America editor Jon Sopel said he suspected that the possibility of huge protests in London would have also swayed the mind of the president. Trump accepted the Queen’s invitation for an official state visit when the prime minister met with him last year – but a petition calling for the invite to be withdrawn was signed by more than 1.8 million people, while the issue was debated in Parliament.Trump has clashed with May plenty of times since: in November of last year, May said it was "wrong" for him to share videos posted by Britain First. She also disagreed with the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Either way, he’s not coming yet. NO!