Puffed-up Trump's second state visit promises chaos

Now that we know Donald Trump will be making his state visit to the United Kingdom in September, the big question is - will the blimp fly again?

- SEAN O'GRADY

You may recall the blimp - the giant Trump baby balloon that was raised in London during the president’s previous official visits, in 2018, and upgraded to full state visit status in 2019. The 20-foot-high inflatable portrayed an infantile Trump in a nappy with a snarl on its face, like it’d just been told it had lost a free and fair presidential election.

Seemingly inspired by Orville the Duck, the Trump blimp was intended - in the words at the time of its progenitor, Leo Murray - “to make sure he knows that all of Britain is looking down on him and laughing at him”.

It is now (or should be) as honoured and traditional an element of a Trump visit as the lavish banquet and inspecting the guards in their busbies — but will Keir Starmer pressure mayor Sadiq Khan to take that blimp down in the name of Anglo-American relations?

Khan has been singled out for criticism by Trump before and was proud of permitting the airborne satire to take flight over the capital on previous occasions. The now historic artefact is apparently in storage at the Museum of London, though it is occasionally given a test flight to ensure it’s still airworthy, like the Spitfires and Lancaster bombers we like to see fly past on other great occasions.

The sight of the blimp from the window of Air Force One could make the famously touchy president so upset that he might order the plane to turn around and head straight back to Florida. Which would be a shame, because it would deprive us of some great late-summer entertainment.