Donald and Melania Trump are currently on the second day for their state visit to the UK, hosted by Her Majesty the Queen. The US President and First Lady have spent time with Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall – so far they have spent time at Clarence House and Buckingham Palace with Charles and Camilla, and will dine with them again tonight after yesterday’s state banquet. Today, the President has been in talks with Prime Minister Theresa May, who has previously confirmed that she will raise the issue of climate change with Mr Trump.
Mrs May acknowledged that their talks had covered areas of difference, including climate change.
President Trump has been a divisive figure on environmental issues, in particular climate change, by making controversial comments himself and taking political steps such as pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Although in 2009 he was part of a business coalition calling upon President Obama to act on climate change, since then he has reversed his position and gone so far as to say, in 2012, that: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive."
In contrast, Prince Charles ardently supports environmental causes, going all the way back to the Sixties, and has been vocal about the threat of climate change.
Donald Trump and Theresa May met for talks this afternoon (Image: Getty)
Prince Charles has been outspoken on climate change for many years (Image: Getty)
Meanwhile, President Trump's views on the matter have caused controversy (Image: Getty)
While the Royal Family keep a position of political neutrality, they do have a role of “soft diplomacy” which is evident in this week’s state visit.
The Telegraph’s Geoffrey Lean went so far as to say, in 2014, that, “The House of Windsor are now the country's most formidable green pressure group”, and reported that the Queen had “privately expressed