Trump's UK visit will mix trade and tech talks with royal pomp

LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit during which the British government hopes a multibillion-dollar technology deal will show the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance.

State visits in Britain blend 21st-century diplomacy with royal pageantry. Trump’s two-day trip comes complete with horse-drawn carriages, military honor guards and a glittering banquet inside a 1,000-year-old castle — all tailored to a president with a fondness for gilded splendor.

King Charles III will host Trump at Windsor Castle on Wednesday before talks the next day with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British leader’s rural retreat.

Starmer’s office said the visit will demonstrate that “the U.K.-U.S. relationship is the strongest in the world, built on 250 years of history” — after that awkward rupture in 1776 — and bound by shared values of “belief in the rule of law and open markets.” There was no mention of Trump’s market-crimping fondness for sweeping tariffs.

The White House expects the two countries will strengthen their relationship during the trip and celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, according to a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was unclear how the U.K. was planning to mark that chapter in their shared history.

“The trip to the U.K. is going to be incredible," Trump told reporters Sunday. He said Windsor Castle is “supposed to be amazing” and added: “It’s going to be very exciting.”

Trump is the first U.S. president to get a second state visit to the U.K.

The unprecedented nature of the invitation, along with the expectation of lavish pomp and pageantry, holds dual appeal to Trump. The Republican president has glowingly praised the king's late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and spoken about how his own Scotland-born mother loved the queen and the monarchy.

Trump, as he left the White House on Tuesday, noted that during his past state visit he was hosted at Buckingham Palace.

“I don’t want to say one is better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate,” Trump said.

He also called the king “an elegant gentleman” and said “he represents the country so well.”

The president is also royally flattered by exceptional attention and has embraced the grandeur of his office in his second term. He has adorned the normally more austere Oval Office with gold accents, is constructing an expansive ballroom at the White House and has sought to refurbish other Washington buildings to his liking.

Foreign officials have shown they’re attuned to his tastes. During a visit to the Middle East this year, leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar didn’t just roll out a red carpet but dispatched fighter jets to escort Trump’s plane.

Starmer has already shown he’s adept at charming Trump. Visiting Washington in February, he noted the president's Oval Office decorating choices and decision to display a bust of Winston Churchill. During Trump’s private trip to Scotland in July, Starmer visited and praised Trump’s golf courses.

Efforts to woo the president make some members of Starmer's Labour Party uneasy, and Trump will not address Parliament during his visit, like French President Emmanuel Macron did in July. Lawmakers will be on their annual autumn recess, sparing the government an awkward decision.

The itinerary in Windsor and at Chequers, both well outside London, also keeps Trump away from a planned mass protest against his visit.

“This visit is really important to Keir Starmer to show that he’s a statesman,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “But it’s such a double-edged sword, because he’s going to be a statesman alongside a U.S. president that is not popular in Europe.”

Preparations for the visit have been ruffled by political turmoil in Starmer’s center-left government. Last week, Starmer sacked Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mandelson had good relations with the Trump administration and played a key role in securing a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement in May. His firing has put Epstein back in British headlines as Trump tries to swerve questions about his own relationship with the disgraced financier.

Mandelson’s exit came just a week after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner quit over a tax error on a home purchase. A senior Starmer aide, Paul Ovenden quit Monday over tasteless text messages he sent years ago. Fourteen months after winning a landslide election victory, Starmer's position at the helm of the Labour Party is fragile and his poll ratings are in the dumps.

But he has found a somewhat unexpected supporter in Trump, who has said Starmer is a friend, despite being “slightly more liberal than I am.”

Starmer’s government has cultivated that warmth and tried to use it to get favorable trade terms with the U.S., the U.K.’s largest single economic partner, accounting for 18% of total British trade.

The May trade agreement reduces U.S. tariffs on Britain's key auto and aerospace industries. But a final deal has not been reached over other sectors, including pharmaceuticals, steel and aluminum.

As he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump said U.K. officials wanted to continue trade negotiations during his visit.

“They’d like to see if they can get a little bit better deal, so we’ll talk to them” he said.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are expected to be among the business leaders in the U.S. delegation. Trump and Starmer are set to sign a technology partnership – which Mandelson was key to striking – accompanied by major investments in nuclear power, life sciences and Artificial Intelligence data centers.

The leaders are also expected to sign nuclear energy deals, expand cooperation on defense technology and explore ways to bolster ties between their financial hubs, according to the White House official.

Starmer has also tried to use his influence to maintain U.S. support for Ukraine, with limited results. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has not made good on threats to impose new sanctions on Russia for shunning peace negotiations.

Last week’s Russian drone incursion into NATO member Poland drew strong condemnation from European NATO allies, and pledges of more planes and troops for the bloc’s eastern flank. Trump played down the incident's severity, musing that it “ could have been a mistake. ”

Starmer also departs from Trump over Israel’s war in Gaza, and has said the U.K. will formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations later this month.

Vinjamuri said Starmer “has kept the United States speaking the right language" on Ukraine, but has had little impact on Trump’s actions.

“On China, on India, on Israel and Gaza and Hamas, and on Vladimir Putin – on the really big important things – the U.K. hasn’t had a huge amount of influence," she said.

President Donald Trump speaks with journalists on Air Force One en route to Stansted Airport near London, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are greeted by The Viscount Hood, Lord-in-Waiting, center, right, as they arrive at Stansted Airport near London, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are greeted by The Viscount Hood, Lord-in-Waiting, center, right, as they arrive at Stansted Airport near London, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Police officers carry out security searches outside the Windsor Castle in Windsor, England, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, ahead of the state visit of U.S. President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Soldiers of Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment rehearse at preparations for the carriage procession at Combermere Barracks, in Windsor, England, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, ahead of the state visit of U.S. President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain's Prince Charles toast, during the Return Dinner in Winfield House, the residence of the Ambassador of the United States of America to the UK, in Regent's Park, part of the president's state visit to the UK, in London, Tuesday, June 4, 2019. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer exit Air Force One as they arrive at Royal Air Force Lossiemouth en route to Aberdeen, Scotland Monday, July 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.

“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.

It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.

Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.

While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.

NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.

The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)

This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)