Trump arrives to meet Putin, leaving the UK reeling in his wake

Donald Trump arrived in Finland on Sunday after a UK visit which saw him tramp mud through his red-carpet welcome and leave diplomatic protocol a little tattered in his wake.

After teeing off in Scottish drizzle for a final round at his Turnberry golf course, the US president boarded Air Force One bound for Helsinki and a summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
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As he reflected on his trip, an undoubted highlight had been tea with the Queen, Trump told ITV’s Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan. She was a “fantastic woman”, and he thought of his late Hebridean-born mother as he received a ceremonial welcome at Windsor Castle on Friday.

“I was walking up, and I was saying [to Melania, the first lady], ‘can you imagine my mother seeing this scene?’ Windsor. Windsor Castle. And it is beautiful, it was really beautiful, but the Queen is terrific,” Trump said.

Asked if he had spoken about Brexit with the monarch, Trump said she thought it was “a very complex problem”, Morgan wrote in the Mail on Sunday before the broadcast on Monday. Pushed to reveal details, the president clammed up. “Well I can’t talk. You know, I’ve heard very strongly from a lot of people, you just don’t talk about conversations with the Queen, right?”

It was one diplomatic convention he seemed prepared to adhere to in an otherwise extraordinary visit.

Theresa May had laid on a welcome of high calibre, shuttered away from the tens of thousands of placard-waving protesters and the Trump baby blimp balloon.