The Mogul has landed. Yes, that’s Donald Trump’s Secret Service call sign (Melania’s is Muse, perhaps a reference to her modelling days). The US President landed in the UK yesterday evening for his unprecedented second state visit to the UK.
Unprecedented because Trump is the first US President to get a second state visit, which comes with a royal invitation and all the pomp and ceremony that includes. Of course, Trump loves pomp, so rolling out the royal red carpet is an obvious diplomatic manoeuvre to butter him up ahead of some tricky geopolitical topics of conversation.
⦿ Trump state visit LIVE: King hosts Donald Trump and First Lady Melania at Windsor Castle - watch
Signs before take off were positive, with Trump describing King Charles III as his “good friend”. "He represents the country so well, such an elegant gentleman,” said the US President. The pair have known each other for a long time; Charles once went for tea at Mar-a-Lago back in 1988 while in Palm Beach for a polo trip (although he didn’t spend the night).
The US President and First Lady arrived at Stansted Airport on Air Force One on Tuesday 16 September. Not London’s most glamorous airport by a long run (that’s obviously City, followed by Heathrow and then Gatwick. But at least it’s not Luton), but better in terms of security for the presidential plane — one of two Boeing 747-200Bs customised to turn into a flying White House and command centre complete with medical facilities.
Trump’s security team will have been planning this for months, with preparations that include flying a huge amount of gear in to London alongside an estimated 60 Secret Service agents charged with keeping the president safe.
Plane watchers have been tracking the arrival of US military equipment in the UK over the last week. Six CH-47 Chinooks, tandem-rotor military transport helicopters, arrived at RAF Northolt in North Ruislip on September 9. Then on September 11 the RAF Police and the Met Police had to close the road to allow for the low flight path of a US Military C-17 Globemaster.
This jet plane was designed to deliver troops and heavy cargo to difficult-to-reach environments, but here it was used to deliver a US Marine Corps Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King helicopter in green and white livery. Two more C-17 Globemaster’s arrived the next day, each with a VH-3D Sea King aboard. These belong to Marine Helicopter Squadron 1, or HMX-1, and US troops quickly assembled the Sea Kings so the Marine Corp could take the pair of them on a test flight with a trio of the Chinooks over London (you can’t miss that distinctive wokka-wokka sound if you’re near their flight path).
Why three matching helicopters? When the US President is on board the Sea King it adopts the call sign Marine One, and they always fly in a formation of up to five identical helicopters so as to obscure the exact location of America’s leader.
Usually the president brings some of the US Military’s Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircrafts, plane-heli hybrids that can take off vertically. However most of the fleet is currently in Australia for maintenance, having been grounded in December 2024 following mechanical issues.
Trump flew on Marine One from Stanstead to Winfield House, the US ambassador to the UK’s residence next to Regent’s Park. He spent the night at Winfield House, where he was perhaps able to take the time to admire the art collection of new US ambassador Warren Stephen.
Stephen and his wife Harriet moved in to the neo-Georgian house after Trump swore him in at the end of April, along with their impressive works that include a Monet, a Renoir, a Cezanne and a Degas. Unlike previous ambassadors, these works aren’t simply on loan; Stephen is a billionaire financier, Republican donor, and a golf-course owner that came with some of his family’s art collection.
Trump will likely be travelling via Marine One between venues during his state visit, unless the weather is particularly bad, but the presidential motorcade with all its support vehicles has also been freighted over by the US military.
Five more C-17 Globemaster’s arrived on 14 September with the motorcade onboard. Pride of place is The Beast, the heavily armoured presidential limousine. Two identical Beasts, in fact.
This model cost a reported $1.5 billion and is understood to be kitted out with night vision, tear gas firing capabilities, and a fridge stocked with the president’s blood type. Externally it resembles a Cadillac XT6, but it’s reportedly built on a Chevrolet Kodiak truck chassis to take the weight of all the bullet-proof armour.
Trump was the first US President to get to ride in this model. When Barack Obama bought over the previous version of The Beast, it made headlines after requiring a multi-point turn to get out of the narrow road at No 10 Downing Street. The 47th president will not be driving into central London, where Stop Trump Coalition protests are happening, so the risk of this happening again is much lower.
Two Chevrolet Suburban cars were also spotted getting unloaded from the C-17s. These form part of the motorcade and the president sometimes rides in them too. As with the helicopters, there’s a deliberate security system for travelling in a pack of vehicles that could contain the president. The actual car gets the codename Stagecoach, while the other(s) are Spare(s). US Secret Service drivers will weave in and out of each other to confuse the target for would-be attackers.
Two vehicles for the United States Secret Service HAMMER Team were also in the motorcade flown over for the state visit. With ambulance bodies loaded onto a Ford 550 chassis, they provide a mobile base for the Hazardous Agent Mitigation & Medical Emergency Response team. If there’s a chemical, biological or nuclear attack on the president or his secret service then they can be bundled into these vehicles for extraction, decontamination and treatment.
Watchtower was also spotted being unloaded from one of the C-17s. That’s the codename for an Electronic Countermeasures Vehicle that can jam communications and remote detonators. It also has radar and infrared sensors to detect incoming missiles and drones, which it can counter with infrared smoke and chaff - thin strips of radar-reflective material that could confuse the weapon system giving the rest of the motorcade time to escape.
The motorcade also includes Hawkeye, a Counter Assault Team (CAT) dedicated to protecting the US president. Part of the US Secret Service, this is a tactical unit that would swoop in to engage attackers to give the president time to flee with the rest of the motorcade.
All this equipment will head from Winfield House to Windsor Castle, where Marine One will land in the Walled Garden.
Trump will be welcomed by members of the royal family including Prince William and Princess Kate. The royal residence has been fortified with a ‘ring of steel’ security fence around the perimeter, and Thames Valley Police have imposed airspace restrictions for planes and drones over the area.
There will be no public appearances for Trump, but he will be treated to a royal salute, a carriage procession through the Windsor estate, a Beating Retreat ceremony and a flypast. Also on the schedule is a visit to pay his respects at the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II, and a state banquet. He will then head on to Chequers, the Prime Minister’s rural residence.
One part of Trump’s overseas trip preparations remains shrouded in mystery, however. Will he be bringing his own supply of Diet Coke? The 47th President is a huge fan of the carbonated beverage, to the point of reportedly having a button installed in the Oval Office so he can request it at his leisure.
As any aficionado of what Gen Z affectionately call “fridge cigarettes” know, the recipe is different in the US versus the UK. What we do know, thanks to revelations made by employees at the BLT Prime restaurant inside the Trump International Hotel in Washington, is that there is a seven-step process to serving the presidential Diet Coke.
According to their Standard Operating Procedure handbook for Trump’s visit, a waiter should offer Trump hand sanitiser before asking if he would like ice or no ice. The glasses and bottles are then presented on a polished tray, and the Diet Coke is opened within his eyesight. The glass is then placed to his right.
Hopefully staff at Windsor Palace and Chequers have received their own version of these instructions ahead of the state visit.
