Queen Elizabeth snubs Donald Trump in speech to Parliament

The president has a planned visit to the U.K. later this year, but you wouldn't know it from the Queen

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published June 21, 2017 11:39AM (EDT)

 (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain conspicuously neglected to mention President Donald Trump in her recent speech to Parliament.

Although she mentioned that she and her husband Prince Philip "look forward to welcoming" the Spanish royal family during their upcoming visit next month, she neglected to mention a planned visit to their country by Trump, according to a report by Bloomberg. According to ABC News, the British government has extended an invitation to Trump and the administration has accepted it, but no official dates have been finalized.

Trump's visit has met with opposition by the British public due to his pulling America out of the Paris climate accord, his harsher stance on NATO, his perceived anti-immigrant policies and other right-wing positions.

The president didn't help matters when he harshly criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan for saying there is "no reason to be alarmed" after a terrorist attack in that city. What Trump either neglected to mention or didn't know was that Khan had been referring to the increased presence of law enforcement in the aftermath of the terrorist attack rather than the actions of the terrorists themselves.

Instead of apologizing for his mistake, Trump instead claimed that corrections to his criticism were a "pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his 'no reason to be alarmed' statement. (Mainstream media) is working hard to sell it!"

Prime Minister Theresa May also criticized Trump for his comments about Khan, saying that "I think Donald Trump was wrong in the things he has said about Sadiq Khan... we have been working with Sadiq Khan — party politics are put to one side — we work together."


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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