Thousands of British officers will be on duty along with US secret service agents amid security concerns in the wake of the the murder of Donald Trump’s close ally on Wednesday night
More than 100 US secret service agents are expected to accompany Donald Trump during his UK visit next week following the murder of Charlie Kirk.
The multi-million pound police operation will be on high-alert coming just days after the assassination of the US President’s close ally at a university in Utah. It will see one of the largest drone deployments in the skies above a ring of steel around Windsor Castle as the King hosts Trump and his wife Melania.
Thousands of British police officers will also be on duty throughout the two day visit. MI5 is monitoring potential lone-wolf attackers and underground political opponents while SAS troops will be poised to counter any attack, with back-up from a US special forces unit.
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A security source said: “What happened last night in Utah adds a level of complexity and uncertainty to the planning but hopefully by next week things will be clearer in terms of whether it was a lone wolf attack or part of a wider conspiracy.”
The Stop Trump coalition is planning a “Trump Not Welcome” demonstration in London when he arrives next Wednesday. It has called for the visit to be cancelled, accusing the US president of “denying climate science” and “siding with war criminals – in Israel, Russia and beyond”.
The source said: “Any sort of disruption of his visit by demonstrators, even if it is just spray paint, would be a coup for them so everything will be as tight as it can possibly be. The security services have been looking very carefully for some time for anything to suggest that someone has got a plan that they are trying to implement. That will include known obsessed individuals or any indications of a problem from an unknown source.”
The US president’s stay with the King and Queen for the first day of his two-day visit next Wednesday will have no public-facing element, making it easier to police. Trump will be treated to a flypast by the Red Arrows as well as UK and US F-35 military jets on the lawn at Windsor Castle, as well as a special military ceremony.
On the second day, the president and first lady will depart Windsor Castle for Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence in Buckinghamshire. Trump’s motorcade, which includes two identical limousines, will be transported ahead of the president by United States Air Force transport aircraft.
The president travels in Cadillac One – a bomb-proof enhanced limousine dubbed the “Beast”. A temporary order will restrict Windsor airspace from when the state visit rehearsal takes place on 17 September, until 19 September.
“It’s a significant policing operation for us,” Insp Matthew Wilkinson, airspace bronze commander for Thames Valley Police, said. Among the devices is the £5,000 DJI M30T drone which has a high-definition lens that can read a car’s number plate from 400m.