London pub renames itself The Trump Arms ahead of presidential visit

Even with an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at London Stansted airport for the American leader's first official visit to the U.K. Thursday morning amid an expected surge in protests.

"My message to those coming to the protests in London is that this must be peaceful and good-spirited".

Protests have taken place across the country, with many anti-Trump demonstrators holding placards and banging its and pans outside the London residence husband-and-wife are residing at.

U.S. President Donald Trump checks time prior to a dinner at the Art and History Museum at the Parc du Cinquantenaire during the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium July 11, 2018.

The Together Against Trump procession will be joined by a splinter protest called Trumpets Against Trump, which aims to "provide a wake-up call against the normalisation of fascism". Both those accords were the result of years of painstaking diplomacy by European leaders, and Trump unilaterally trashed them.

Ignoring all diplomatic niceties, the convention-shredding United States president set up the four-day visit with a rebuke of May as she battles to stop her government falling apart over Brexit.

Trump was joining British Prime Minister Theresa May for a black-tie dinner Thursday at Blenheim Palace, Churchill's birthplace near Oxford, at the start of his trip to England.

Downing Street has said that the dinner, at the birthplace and ancestral home of Britain's war-time prime minister Winston Churchill, is meant to "celebrate the strong business links between our two countries" at a time when the United Kingdom is hoping to strike a free trade deal with the USA following Brexit. "I think that's why Brexit happened".

Theresa May promises orderly Brexit amid more resignations
But Parliament would oversee the UK's trade policy and have the ability to "choose" to diverge from the European Union rules. They "didn't represent the majority of opinion in the conservative party or house of commons", he said.

Lance Price, who served as former Prime Minister Tony Blair's media adviser, told the Independent that no matter what the American convoy contends, the fact that Donald Trump is avoiding London points to a moral victory for the protesters.

Like this go-round, protesters promised widespread backlash back in February amid the president's plans to travel to London for the grand-opening of a new US embassy.

"They will. I have no doubt about it", he said. "I don't know [if] that is what they voted for", he added.

"There is no stronger alliance than that of our special relationship with the USA and there will be no alliance more important in the years ahead", May said ahead of the visit.

It has been dubbed Storm Trump and the country is braced for a United States presidential visit that has split opinion like never before. She said they will discuss security and defense, an aspect of the relationship that is causing anxiety for some British politicians.

A giant six-metre-high blimp of Trump depicted as an orange baby in nappies is also expected to fly over the capital. Many will see his avoidance of London as proof he is trying to keep away from dissent, however, the U.S. ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, denied this.

Trump will then meet the Queen at Windsor Castle.