Protests under way as Donald Trump visits the UK

The outspoken president and first lady Melania arrived in the UK yesterday.

Their arrival was marked by protests at key locations including at Blenheim Palace, where they sat down for dinner with Mrs May, and the US ambassador’s residence near Regents Park where they spent the night, as well as in Cardiff and elsewhere.

But they avoided the noise and spectacle of the protests on the ground by travelling by helicopter between the airport, London and Oxfordshire.

Today will be marked with massive protests in London – including a "Baby Trump" balloon floating over Parliament Square – while the president meets the Queen at Windsor Castle today before flying to Scotland to visit his golf course – where he will face further protests.

The controversial president caused waves in an interview with The Sun yesterday, in which he said he would have carried out the Brexit negations “much differently.

"If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal,” he said.

"If they do that, then their trade deal with the US will probably not be made."

The prime minister had used the Blenheim black tie dinner with political and business leaders to press Mr Trump on the benefits of a free trade deal after Brexit.

Addressing the 100-strong group Mrs May said there was an "unprecedented" opportunity to do a deal that boosted jobs and growth in both countries.

But Mr Trump appeared to link Brexit to the current trade dispute between the US and EU over steel and aluminium.

He told The Sun Mrs May's plan would affect trade "unfortunately in a negative way". He added: "We have enough difficulty with the European Union.

"We are cracking down right now on the European Union because they have not treated the United States fairly on trading.

"No, if they do that I would say that that would probably end a major trade relationship with the United States."

The Trumps landed in Air Force One at Stansted Airport at lunchtime on Thursday to kick-start a four-day working visit to Britain as protests against his trip began.

Speaking to reporters in Belgium after a fiery Nato Summit, Mr Trump had described the UK as a "hot spot right now with a lot of resignations" and dismissed the prime minister's Chequers plan on the next stage of Brexit.

"I would say Brexit is Brexit," he told reporters.

"The people voted to break it up so I would imagine that's what they would do, but maybe they're taking a different route, I don't know if that is what they voted for."

He added that it seemed as if the UK was "getting at least partially involved back with the European Union".

"I'd like to see them be able to work it out so it could go quickly," he said.

It comes just days after Mr Trump declined to say whether Mrs May should remain in post, said he had "always liked" Boris Johnson, who quit as foreign secretary over the Chequers agreement, and described the UK as being in "turmoil".

Mr Trump went further and suggested to the Sun Mr Johnson was "a great representative for your country".

Asked if he could become prime minister he added: "Well I am not pitting one against the other. I am just saying I think he would be a great prime minister. I think he's got what it takes."

In a statement following the publication of the Sun interview, a White House spokesman said Mr Trump "likes and respects prime minister May very much" and he "never said anything bad about her".

The president’s comments have been met with a mixed reaction in the UK political sphere.

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry gave a remarkable defence of Mrs May, saying it had been "extraordinarily rude of Donald Trump to behave like this".

"She is his host. What did his mother teach him? This is not the way you behave," she told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

Ms Thornberry said Mr Trump's comments on the PM's Brexit strategy and his suggestion Mr Johnson would be a "great prime minister" were "rudeness upon rudeness upon rudeness".

However her sympathy for the PM was not unqualified.

The Labour MP said: "You need to stand up to him. She is letting down our country by not standing up to him."

But Simon Hart, Tory MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, tweeted: "When Obama 'intervened' in the Brexit debate it was considered outrageous, so no doubt the same will be said of Trump..."

Jonathan Edwards, Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said president Trump has come to the UK "to humiliate".

Writing on Twitter, Mr Edwards said: "Blunt 'diplomacy' by Trump but shows that the inherent hubris of the British establishment won't go very far when faced with Brexit reality. He's come to humiliate.

"Stark choice - stay within EU economic orbit without a say or crawl to opportunists like Trump for inferior deal."

And Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North, has called for Mr Trump's meeting with the Queen to be cancelled.

Mr Streeting tweeted: "Given his remarks about the prime minister and the Mayor of London, this would be the right moment to cancel Trump's tea with the Queen.

"He doesn't deserve it - and the Queen certainly doesn't deserve it!"

Tory MP Anna Soubry, a strident remainer, tweeted: "The more @realDonaldTrump insults and undermines @theresa_may the more he enhances her credibility. #Trump is a guest in #UK because we respect the great office he holds. Yet again he diminishes the standing of the great country he is meant to lead #USA #TrumpUK."

But Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan told the Today programme: "Donald Trump is in many ways a controversialist, that's his style, that's the colour he brings to the world stage.

"And he is, in that sense, very unconventional. I don't think we see it as rude. And I think the atmosphere last night at the Blenheim dinner was very, very special actually."

Sir Alan added: "I don't think it's rude to praise Boris Johnson. I don't think that's rude at all. He's entitled to his opinion.

"But, I think the substantive discussions that will take place in Chequers today between the prime minister and the president will go into a lot of detail on a lot of things."