Trump Could Make State Visit to U.K. Two Months After Brexit, Says U.S. Ambassador

When Donald Trump visited the U.K. in July, he was met with widespread protests. But the president seems undeterred from making a return trip, according to Woody Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to Britain.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program, Johnson suggested it would be "great" for Trump to make a state visit to the U.K. in May, to coincide with commemorations marking the end of the Second World War, provided the president and Queen Elizabeth could coordinate their busy schedules.

Read more: The best pictures from the protests against Trump's U.K. visit

"Between you and me, I think that would be a good time," Johnson told the BBC. "I would think the president would be in favour of it and looking forward to it because that was mentioned when he was over here, so if we can do that it would be, I think, a big positive."

Trump was supposed to make a state visit to the U.K. at the beginning of 2018, after being invited by Prime Minister Theresa May. However, the visit was postponed indefinitely, with some reports suggesting that the president did not want to face the widespread public protests, according to The Guardian.

Nevertheless, he did make an informal working visit in the summer, meeting the queen in the process. Perhaps most notably, a large balloon depicting the president as a giant orange baby was flown over Parliament Square in London, with more than 100,000 protesters in attendance.

If the visit in May 2019 does go ahead, it will come just two months after the U.K. is set to exit the European Union. Ambassador Johnson told the BBC that the president's offer of a bilateral trade deal was still something the U.S. would be interested in signing following Brexit.

"What I'm focusing on here is something the president has also said—that is looking forward to, and hoping, that the environment will lead to the ability for the U.S. to do a quick, very massive bilateral trade deal," he said.

"We're still going through the stages of deciding exactly where the country is going," Johnson said. "If it goes in a way that allows these kinds of agreements to occur, then I think that will be very positive in the president's eyes."

However, he warned that such an agreement would not be possible under the current proposed withdrawal agreement that May has negotiated with the EU, adding that the "country is need of leadership."