Trump’s planned Britain trip postponed due to protests
“Donald Trump's trip to the UK will be postponed so that he can avoid protests,” The Independent reported on March 1.
British Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump for an official state visit in January. But the move was immediately met by protests from both the public and Parliament — with The Independent reporting the president was concerned that he would be snubbed or embarrassed if he came in June as planned.
Common Dreams wrote: “Originally set for June, the visit had sparked uproar because of Trump’s now-halted Muslim ban, and a petition to stop the state visit referencing Trump’s ‘well documented misogyny and vulgarity’ has gathered the signatures of over 1.8 million Britons.”
Instead, it is reported the trip will likely be put back to October, when parliament is in recess — meaning the US commander in chief can avoid being directly confronted by protesting MPs in parliament.
Pro-Trump protests flop
After weeks of protests against his presidency and policies, US President Donald Trump called on his supporters to hold rallies that would be “the biggest of them all”, TeleSUR English said. However, his supporters failed to deliver — with no more than a few hundred people turning up to events across the country that day.
Pro-Trump news network Breitbart said the February 27 rallies would be “MASSIVE”. However, photos from journalists on the ground in those venues, as well as pictures from news organisations, showed small crowds in most locations.
Trump causes tourism slump
The travel company Frommer’s has revealed that Donald Trump’s election has had a noticeably negative effect on tourism in the United States, Occupy Democrats said on February 25.
Frommer’s reported: “Experts across the travel industry are warning that masses of tourists are being scared away from visiting the United States, and the loss of tourism jobs could be devastating.”
The phenomenon is being called the “Trump Slump”, with the most obviously adverse policy being his court overruled “Muslim ban”, which blocked travellers from seven majority-Muslim countries. Tourism from these seven countries remains down by 80%, despite the ban being lifted.
Even countries without a significant Muslim population are sending fewer tourists, with foreign tourism over all down nearly 7%. Online searches for flights from foreign countries to the United States have fallen by 17%, according to Frommer’s.
It is not just holiday-makers. During the first week of the Muslim-ban, foreign business travel dropped by US$185 million. European flight searches for the United States have dropped by 11.6%, according to Forbes.