For Trump, London Visit Is a (Royal) Family Affair – The New York Times

The president landed in Britain fresh from a round of interviews in which he expressed opinions about British foreign policy and after firing off a slew of tweets responding to criticism from the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, by calling him a “stone cold loser.” But if Mr. Trump’s behavior bothered his hosts — including Prince Harry, whose wife, the Duchess of Sussex, was called “nasty” by Mr. Trump just days earlier — it did not seem to show. (The American-born duchess, formerly known as Meghan Markle, was not in attendance.) The reception that the Trump family received was warm, and the royals seemed interested in engaging and charming their guests, British and American officials said.

But unlike the royals, who wage an endless battle to keep Britain’s voracious tabloids at arm’s length, the Trump children shared behind-the-scenes photographs and tweets of their trip.

“It was an incredible honor to meet Her Majesty The Queen, the longest ruling Monarch in British history,” Ms. Trump wrote of the day on Twitter. “Thank you for a warm welcome to the United Kingdom.”

For Mr. Trump’s children, the Buckingham Palace visit was the highest-profile example of a change in presidential plans made to include them, but it was not the only one.

The weekend before President Trump delivered his State of the Union address in February, several of the special guests who had been invited to sit near the first lady were suddenly told that some changes needed to be made.

Instead of sitting with Melania Trump, half a dozen of the 28 guests she had chosen were told that they would have to sit down the hall from the House chamber, in a room featuring a television, chocolates, tissues and White House aides. The newly available seats were then given to two Tennesseans whose sentences had been cut short by Mr. Trump under a criminal justice overhaul effort that his son-in-law pushed for, and to three of the president’s adult children and two of their spouses.