Starmer’s most persuasive McTrump card – a second state visit… to Scotland

Scotland is an old hand at state visit pageantry – and well versed in heckling the great and the good, writes Royal commentator Alastair Bruce

Donald Trump may have refashioned his Oval Office meetings with heads of government into something akin to The Apprentice or Jeopardy!, but when Keir Starmer brought out the King’s invitation from his pocket, its contents triggered responses of an almost purring pleasure from the unpredictable president.

Quite what the monarch might have written differently, had he known that this letter would be photographed and revealed for all to read, may never be known. But, in a display of soft power, in the face of hard diplomatic realities, this was an open invitation for at least two encounters between these heads of state, including the promise of an unprecedented second state visit to the United Kingdom for the now 47th president of the United States.

The magic offered on this baited hook was Scotland, for it was from the Isle of Lewis that President Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, hailed, along with her lifelong adoration of Elizabeth II and the mystery of royalty, which only grew upon her emigration to America in 1930. Among her scrapbooks would have been pictures of the unique Scottish traditions of pageantry, played out in the picturesque settings of Edinburgh, Stirling and Braemar.

Monarchs usually appoint visiting heads of state to be honorary knights in the Order of the Bath and, given current tensions, the prime minister may be tempted to encourage the King to give President Trump the Order of the Thistle, Scotland’s highest honour. However, the American constitution prohibits President Trump from accepting any such baubles, stating: “No person holding any Office of Profit or Trust … shall without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office or title, of any thing, from any King.”

Still, with this invitation, the King has thrown open the doors to Balmoral Castle, the private home of monarchs since Queen Victoria and where Elizabeth II died in 2022, and to Dumfries House, his personal project of restoration and repurposing as headquarters of The King’s Foundation charity. There, to the strains of the pipes and drums, an unlimited degree of pageantry and ceremony can be summoned. Heads of state have been to Balmoral before, although the only other US president to stay was President Eisenhower in 1959. Then, Elizabeth II offered no pageantry: it was more a family gathering with friends – a subtle distinction that marked respect.

This was also a distinct improvement from the first time the Queen saw Eisenhower in person. In 1942, her father, George VI, forgot that he had invited the D-Day supremo to tour the gardens at Windsor Castle and only remembered when he heard their voices approach while the King, the Queen and their daughters were having tea outside. To avoid embarrassing their visitors, whom the King had told were free to enjoy the grounds as they would remain sequestered away, the Royal Family hid behind a hedge and crawled out of sight. When the King relayed this story to the president at a more official meeting some weeks later, the two men laughed uproariously.

Donald Trump and the late Queen Elizabeth II make a toast during the state banquet at Buckingham Palace in June 2019 (Dominic Lipinski/PA) (PA Archive)

Splendour did mark another visit to Balmoral, in 1896, when Tsar Nicholas II of Russia visited Queen Victoria. The tsar arrived at Leith in the Imperial yacht, travelled to Ballater by train – a station built especially for Victoria and sadly long since closed – and then escorted up the Deeside glen by cavalry from the Scots Greys. Ghillies from the estate held lit torches to illuminate his arrival at the castle door, which the artist Orlando Norie captured in paint.

Advising Buckingham Palace on what can be done to honour this mercurial man is Dr Joe Morrow, the Lord Lyon King of Arms, who is responsible for state ceremonies in Scotland and thus extremely adept at drawing from its rich lexicon of national customs and precedent. There are any number and variety of Scottish regiments, high constables, lord high constables, great officers and banner bearers who can be deployed to enhance the sense of historic occasion.

Edinburgh holds Europe’s oldest ceremonial route in continuous use. Sometimes called the Royal Mile, it has seen many great ridings – the Scottish word for processions – not least the passage of Elizabeth II’s coffin from the Palace of Holyrood House to the High Kirk of St Giles.

Elizabeth II used Scotland as the setting for state visits from monarchs of northern European kingdoms, most recently her cousin, King Harald V of Norway, in 1994. For this, the Household Cavalry travelled north from London to escort the Royal carriages through Edinburgh’s streets; providing the splendour of United Kingdom pageantry in the glory of the northern capital.

This could easily be mounted again, as it was most recently for the Scottish equivalent of the coronation when the Household Cavalry escorted the King and Queen to receive the ancient Scottish crown, sceptre and sword. Sadly, Humza Yousaf vetoed royal carriages, to the disappointment of many Scots. Perhaps the present first minister could be persuaded to grant this horse-drawn glamour back for an American state visit for this golf resort-owning son of Scotland.

But the Royal Mile’s magic comes from its narrow width, which traditionally provides hecklers the perfect vantage point to shout abuse at the great, as it did for those railing against the hapless Mary Queen of Scots, in the 16th century. If the King does convey President Trump along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in a carriage escorted by his bodyguard, the Royal Company of Archers, soundtracked by the clattering of cavalry hooves, we should assume that greatest of all Scottish traditions will be ubiquitous too.

This is the opposite of a “ticker-tape” reception in New York – the centuries-old Scottish tradition for blunt speaking. The outpouring of raw and vivid shouts and gestures, expressing abrupt and often unwelcome points of view.

And Scots can be even more blunt than a Trumpian dressing down.

Alastair Bruce is royal events commentator for Sky News