A major policing operation is set to get underway for Donald Trump’s state visit as officers prepare to respond to a potential high-threat incident in Windsor.
The King is to host the US president and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, at Windsor Castle this week, where they will be feted with a ceremonial welcome and state banquet.
Armed response vehicles (ARVs), baton guns and ballistic helmets are among the resources being deployed for the 24-hour-a-day policing operation set to be in place in the Berkshire town during the event, with a temporary order restricting the airspace from Tuesday – when the rehearsal is to take place – until Thursday.
Armed officers will be patrolling the streets with the vehicles ready to respond in case of increased threat, Thames Valley Police said last week during a media briefing at the force’s training centre in Sulhamstead, Berkshire.
“We have considered anything from a low to a hight-threat incident, and it’s a very comprehensive security operation as a result,” police sergeant and operational firearms commander Daniel Hatfield said.
“Every single state visit or policing operation of this nature comes with its own merits, and every operation or plan is constructed individually.
“It’s not the first time a president of the United States has visited Windsor and relationships with our American colleagues are well forged, well practised, so it makes planning a security operation like this a lot easier.”
Officers will have access to a wide range of equipment and weapons, including Tasers, baton guns which propel rubber bullets, Glock 17 sidearms, Lewis Machine & Tool rifles, and shotguns, which are used on dangerous animals.
Additionally, police officers will have access to overalls, gloves, respirators and ballistic helmets “for anything that is CBRN-related – chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear,” Sergeant Hatfield said.
“That is something which hopefully is very unlikely to happen, but if there was ever to be a firearms threat as well as CBRN, this is what we would deploy with our weapons system,” he added.
The equipment will be kept in ARV vans, alongside a first-aid kit and ballistic protection shields, police said.
Trump’s visit comes against a backdrop of political violence and deepening tension in the U.S., following the assassination of right-wing activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk who was shot dead at Utah State University last week.
Instead of the traditional political tactic of invoking calm, the Trump administration has blamed its political opponents for the killing, lashing out at ‘left’ before the motives of the suspect have been established. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard even compared the killing to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at a memorial on Sunday.
Trump himself has been the subject of at least three assassination attempts, including a July 2024 shooting in Pennsylvania in which he was shot in the ear, and an incident in Florida in September the same year, when Secret Service Agents apprehended a man with a rifle who was allegedly trying to shoot Trump on a golf course. A trial for the latter is now underway.
The trip will be Trump’s second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented gesture towards a US president. He was previously feted with a state visit in 2019.
His first state visit to the UK saw thousands of people turn out on the streets in London in opposition, and protests are also expected to take place on Wednesday.
The Stop Trump Coalition is to stage a mass demonstration in central London on the first day of the trip, with a further protest planned near Windsor Castle. The organisation has said the demonstrations aim to highlight “a clear and growing link between the international far right in the US and UK”.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: “Trump’s politics have encouraged this resurgence of hate in both countries. Instead of confronting the problem, and offering real and meaningful solutions, [Sir Keir] Starmer’s government is appeasing Donald Trump with a state visit that polls show most British people are opposed to.”
The protests will come just days after an estimated 110,000 people descended on the capital for one of the largest far-right rallies in the UK in decades.
The rally saw violent clashes with police, hate speech, racist conspiracy theories, and an address by Elon Musk in which he called for the dissolution of parliament, while encouraging Britons to “fight back or die” over the “destruction of Britain” caused by “massive uncontrolled migration”.
