(SOUNDBITE OF MOUNTED BAND OF THE HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY'S PERFORMANCE OF FRANCIS SCOTT KEY'S “THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER”)
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The first day of President Trump's historic trip to the U.K. was dominated by ceremony.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOUNTED BAND OF THE HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY'S PERFORMANCE OF FRANCIS SCOTT KEY'S “THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER”)
KELLY: A carriage procession around the grounds of Windsor Castle with the royal family, inspection of the guards, exhibits from the royal collection, a lavish banquet preceded by a joint U.S.-U.K. military flypast - all the pomp and pageantry that might be expected for the first ever second state visit by an elected politician to a British monarch.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: No more wars, no more hate.
KELLY: But the sights and sounds beyond the castle were far different.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: No more wars, no more hate.
KELLY: That is thousands of protesters filling the streets of London with chants and signs and Trump baby blimps.
EMMA BLENK: Trump's regime is basically a fascist regime.
KELLY: Emma Blenk (ph) moved to the U.K. from Ukraine in 2018. She says she came out to protest to raise public awareness.
BLENK: The fact that America is no longer our ally, the fact that America has turned on us and, like, is more aligned with other autocratic dictatorship is such a scary fact for people to acknowledge that people mostly prefer to hide from it and pretend they're still living in the world before this. And we need to raise public awareness because unless we acknowledge the problem, we are not able to solve it, ever.
KELLY: Protesters told us they were demonstrating over what is happening in the United States, over what is happening in Gaza and over Trump's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The overwhelming message from the protesters?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Say it loud, say it clear, Donald Trump's not welcome here.
KELLY: President Trump seemed untroubled by the backlash to his visit. His Wednesday night was all about ceremony - a state dinner hosted by King Charles at Windsor Castle. Now, that is an invitation a lot of people would give their right arm for it, but we're about to meet someone who turned it down. Today, I trekked down to the banks of the Thames River, Parliament looming over my shoulder, to meet Sir Ed Davey. He is a member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Democrats. That's the third biggest political party here in Britain.
Sir Ed, welcome.
ED DAVEY: Thank you very much, NPR, for having me on.
KELLY: Why boycott the banquet?
DAVEY: Well, I love America and I love our king, and it was a very difficult decision. I've been to many banquets before. Huge honor. But I've been really worried about President Trump's approach on Gaza. He is the one person in the world who could end the humanitarian catastrophe there. And although I actually support his state visit because I believe we should talk to our closest ally - even though I'm no fan of the president - I do think he needs to be held to account for his failure to act in Gaza.
I wanted to put pressure on the British government - who will get a chance to talk to the president - to say, pick up the phone to Netanyahu. Tell him to stop the attacks, to get food in. Pick up the phone to the Qatari government and governments in the Gulf states to put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages. And I want President Trump to do that. I want our government to tell him he should do that.
KELLY: When you say President Trump is the only person with the power to stop this, meaning what's happening in Gaza, may I press you on that? Because we saw just last week, Israel airstrikes on Hamas targets in Doha in Qatar. That was against the wishes of President Trump. Why do you think he has more influence when it comes to Gaza?
DAVEY: Well, President Trump could stop the funding of the Israeli Defense Forces if he chose. It's no doubt, and it's on the record. There are billions of dollars, American taxpayers' dollars, funding Netanyahu's government and what they do. President Trump - you're right - he says these things. He says he doesn't want it to happen, but he has the means to stop it and he chooses not to stop it. I'm told he wants the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, if he wants that prize, I'd support him for it if he stops the killing, stops the famine and stops - and gets the hostages released. If he does that, I think people in Israel will be happy, I think people in Palestine will be happy, and we could get on and start talking about a two-state solution.
KELLY: A question on American influence - maybe American interference in British politics is more apt. You got into a Twitter spat this week with Elon Musk. He called you a craven coward. You responded by calling him a craven coward and adding a SpongeBob SquarePants emoji.
DAVEY: Yeah. It went down well on Twitter. I mean - oh, no, it's X now, isn't it? I've got to keep up. You know, I think it's good to use humor to ridicule someone like Elon Musk. I'm not sure if he has a sense of humor, to be honest. But hopefully, people get the point. He shouldn't be interfering in British politics. He's called for the overthrow of our democratically elected government. Imagine if we did that. He said that civil war is inevitable in the U.K. Imagine if we did that.
KELLY: Just to interject here, this is Elon Musk beamed in via satellite over the weekend to a big march - 100,000, 200,000 people on the streets of London, a rally organized by a hard-right figure here in the UK - and and you have called this an attempt to incite violence on British streets. I mean, are you actually worried that Brits are going to resort to violence because Elon Musk told them to?
DAVEY: Well, I hope he's ignored, and that's why I'm calling him out. He attended a rally where some people were protesting, you know, peacefully and quite rightly, unhappy with the government. I'm unhappy with the government. Some of them were hard-right. And Tommy Robinson, who led it, he's a racist and is one of the more horrible figures in British politics, and Elon Musk supports him. And Elon Musk spoke by video link to part of that protest and he said, violence is coming. Fight back or die. And what happened? Well, we saw 26 police officers injured, four very seriously injured.
I think Elon Musk is an outrageous character. I've said that the British government - I work - want to work cross-party on this - should take measures against him and hit his economic interests. As a democratically elected government who wants to stand up to people who are interfering in our politics, trying to cement violence, trying to cement civil war, I think we should hit back.
KELLY: If the concern is the possibility of violent rhetoric crossing into violent action, I do have to ask, how does swapping insults on Twitter help the cause?
DAVEY: Oh, listen, he started it - (laughter) didn't he? - trying to call me out. And listen, it's only part of it, isn't it? And what I try to do in my approach to politics is make people smile a little bit and ridicule these fanatic extremists like Elon Musk and show that there are decent people out there who remember decent values, who care about other people, care about their fellow human beings. And we are going to hold these very wealthy, powerful people to account.
KELLY: Ed Davey, member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Democrat party here in the United Kingdom. Sir Ed, thank you.
DAVEY: Thank you very much. Great to talk to you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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