LEILA FADEL, HOST:
From royal pageantry to politics. President Trump wraps up his state visit to the United Kingdom today. After royal processions and a sleepover at Windsor Castle, Trump moves on to talks on trade and foreign policy. He's meeting business leaders and Prime Minister Keir Starmer before making his way home to Washington. NPR's Lauren Frayer is at Windsor Castle and reporting on all this, and she joins us now. Good morning.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK Lauren, so President Trump is focusing on business deals today. Tell us about that.
FRAYER: Yeah, a lot of deals have already been announced, actually. The U.S. and U.K. government say it's in the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of deals, from a $30 billion investment from Microsoft, nearly $7 billion from Google, mostly in the U.K.'s artificial intelligence industry, but also the financial sector and nuclear energy partnerships. The devil is really in the details, though, because some of the dollar figures being bandied around are actually over multiple years, and some are pledges, not actually checks written and handed over. A lot of the tech CEOs, though, were at last night's state banquet - Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI's Sam Altman. So we're seeing this sort of blending of business and state affairs that's become quite common in this Trump administration. Another thing on the agenda today is tariffs. I spoke to Duncan Edwards. He's the CEO of British American Business, which is sort of like a transatlantic Chamber of Commerce. And he says the U.K. is lobbying for lower tariff rates.
DUNCAN EDWARDS: The president had indicated that he might try to be helpful. But to be honest, we're not that hopeful that there will be much change.
FRAYER: You'll recall the U.K. cut an early trade deal with this Trump administration, but U.K. steel still faces a 25% tariff. Scotch whiskey also faces 10%. We'll see if Trump is sympathetic to lowering those rates.
FADEL: OK. So in a way, all the royal treatment is a way to emphasize the strength of the so-called U.S.-U.K. special relationship before getting down to some potentially tough topics?
FRAYER: Yeah. I mean, Trump has clearly basked in the royal attention. He's been treated like a king by an actual king. He said in his banquet toast last night that this visit is one of the highest honors of his life. Up until now, it has been a royal visit, which is not supposed to be political.
FADEL: OK.
FRAYER: But King Charles could be a kind of Trump whisperer here. And his own toast last night, the King reminded Trump that the U.S. and U.K. fought together in two world wars to, quote, "defeat the forces of tyrany."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KING CHARLES III: Today, as tyrany once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine.
FRAYER: And, you know, anybody who saw Trump's oval office argument with Ukraine's president back in February could hear that from the king as a sort of minor scolding. And we'll see if this comes up more directly with Prime Minister Starmer this afternoon.
FADEL: OK. Speaking of Starmer, his government is preparing to recognize a Palestinian state later this month. Is that expected to create friction with the United States?
FRAYER: I mean, certainly among the protesters I've been interviewing outside the castle walls, people are waving Palestinian flags. I also saw one Israeli flag in the crowd. Last night on All Things Considered, we heard from a top U.K. politician who boycotted Trump's state banquet over U.S. support for Israel's military operation in Gaza. And so when Starmer stands up there at a press conference with Trump, his task is to not have this turn into a confrontation.
FADEL: That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in Windsor, England. Thank you so much, Lauren.
FRAYER: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR鈥檚 programming is the audio record.
