MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump arrives in the United Kingdom tonight for a rare second state visit, but protests and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's ties to British officials threaten to overshadow all the planned pomp and pageantry. NPR's Lauren Frayer is in Windsor, and she's with us now to preview Trump's trip. Hello, Lauren. Thanks for joining us.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Hi, Michel.
MARTIN: So what's on the itinerary?
FRAYER: Well, the president arrives tonight. I'm looking out at the walls of Windsor Castle. That's where Trump will be with King Charles tomorrow. Then he meets Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his country retreat, called Chequers, on Thursday. This is a massive security operation, especially in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination and the fact that Trump himself has survived assassination attempts. Officers are sweeping the streets here in front of me. It helps that Windsor Castle and Chequers are both private residences, so it's sort of easier to manage from a security perspective. But there will be an open-air carriage procession in Windsor tomorrow, and Trump is also bringing a delegation of U.S. business leaders here.
MARTIN: Oh, so - OK, so they're going to be doing some business deals, too.
FRAYER: Yeah. So the U.K. government says there will be deals involving U.S. banks, a big new AI data center being opened in England, and also expanded market access to both countries' nuclear energy sectors. So that's what they want to focus on, at least, but protesters are also amassing here.
MARTIN: You know, I remember that from Trump's first term when he visited the U.K. There were just some really eye-catching statements, right? There was that big orange blimp. It was meant to look like...
FRAYER: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...A baby Trump in diapers. Protesters hoisted it through London. It kind of - it was a very striking visual. So are there plans for something similar?
FRAYER: That's right. So I spoke to a member of the Stop Trump Coalition who said she can, quote, "neither confirm nor deny" plans to fly that same blimp again. Her name is Seema Syeda. She says, look; Trump is not popular in the U.K. And she's right. Polls show that more than 60% of Britons have an unfavorable view of him. And some Britons are angry at their own government for inviting him.
SEEMA SYEDA: We are deeply unhappy with our prime minister, Keir Starmer, humiliating us by rolling out the red carpet for this far-right president who has slapped tariffs on our economy.
FRAYER: And Syeda says people are angry, you know, about trade, upset about the Trump administration's support for Israel's military operation in Gaza, also upset about how Trump's immigration views might influence things here. Elon Musk actually spoke by video to a rally of anti-immigrant protesters in London last weekend, telling them, quote, "you either fight back or you die." That's what he told the crowd. And then there is, of course, Jeffrey Epstein. Protesters unfurled a massive photo of Trump and Epstein on a lawn outside the castle here. Someone also staged a video of teacups - commemorative teacups with the photos of Trump and Epstein in the Windsor Castle gift shop.
MARTIN: It's interesting. So the Epstein scandals follow Trump across the Atlantic.
FRAYER: Yeah. I mean, Trump was in Scotland this summer, and protesters there waved Epstein posters. This time, it's actually less about Trump's links with Epstein and more about the U.K. ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson - actually, the ex-ambassador. Starmer fired him last week after it came out that he had written letters of encouragement to the late sex offender. And now even some of Starmer's allies here are asking why he kept Mandelson on for so long. You know, the only people who dislike answering Epstein questions more than Starmer are Trump and King Charles, whose brother was once friends with Epstein.
MARTIN: That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in Windsor. Lauren, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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