Could President Trump Have Vetoed Rupert Murdoch's Attendance At The Banquet?

Here’s why it’s helpful to have the encyclopedic Hugo Vickers on hand to explain why Trump’s second State visit to the UK is so remarkable.

He explains:

1. The visit originated in an unusually performative moment when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer handed an invitation from King Charles to Trump in the Oval Office to diffuse tensions around Ukraine.

2. It has carried on in the made-for-TV vein. Instead of arriving by car, as is the norm, the Trumps descended from a helicopter into Windsor Great Park and then got into a carriage procession, that was only visible to a TV audience, for security reasons.

3. Wednesday is for pageantry, which appeals to Trump; Thursday is for politics, which could be thornier.

4. Inside Windsor Castle, Trump is likely sleeping in the same bedroom that the late Queen once gave to Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In order to make Reagan feel comfortable, she took the trouble of installing a shower - which is more hassle than you might imagine in a British castle.

5. The people who projected a photo of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein onto Windsor Castle have been arrested. Hugo thinks they probably got the idea from a more benign Christmas scene that was projected there during the holidays.

6. Trump will have been completely insulated from scenes of the protest in London.

7. We discuss the significance of both the slimmed-down monarchy and the slimmed-down Trump family on this visit.

8. What was the significance of Rupert Murdoch’s attendance at the banquet? Could Trump have vetoed him, given his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal? If he didn’t, why not? Is it possible a truce of sorts was brokered over canapes?

9. It was surprising to Hugo, that King Charles mentioned Ukraine in his toast. The King is not supposed to be political. But Charles has gone off-piste before.

10. Hugo is glad that Prince Harry and his father saw each other last week. Could the Prince be thinking of sending his children to school in the UK?

11. Hugo and I take opposite sides of a bet on that one.

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