In pictures: Memorable moments between the royals and US presidents | World News

American presidents have travelled to Britain to meet the Royal Family for more than 100 years.

Donald Trump will meet King Charles for the second time when he arrives in Windsor on Wednesday, having been hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II on his previous state visit during his first term.

For the King, it will be the first time he welcomes a US president as monarch.

Some presidents’ visits have run more smoothly than others. Here, we look back at some of the most memorable.

Woodrow Wilson was the first US president to visit the Royal Family while in office, making the long journey on SS Washington in December 1918 – weeks after the First World War came to an end.

Arriving in London on Boxing Day, thousands of people lined the route to Buckingham Palace, where he appeared on the balcony alongside King George V and Queen Mary after chants of “we want Wilson” from the crowd.

King George VI also made history when he met Franklin D Roosevelt, after becoming the first reigning British monarch to travel to the US in June 1939.

People flocked to greet him and the Queen Mother as they rode through the streets of Washington DC. After state dinner formalities at the White House, they travelled to New York, where they enjoyed a more relaxed hot dog picnic in Hyde Park.

Harry Truman was the first US president to meet Queen Elizabeth – while she was still a princess in 1951.

Seven years after she took the throne, Dwight D Eisenhower met her at Balmoral, where a young Princess Anne and Prince Charles were pictured alongside him, wearing kilts.

John F Kennedy met the then-35-year-old Queen Elizabeth in June 1961, just six months into his presidency.

A state banquet was held at Buckingham Palace, with the glamorous visit dramatised in the Netflix series The Crown.

Just two years later, on 22 November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Gerald Ford didn’t visit the UK during his two-and-a-half years in office, but the Queen met him on a visit to the US in July 1976.

The pair danced together at a White House state dinner, but with unfortunate timing, the band played The Lady Is A Tramp just as the Queen took to the floor – a now infamous faux pas.

Jimmy Carter met the late Queen at Buckingham Palace in May 1977.

His more memorable interaction was with the Queen Mother, however, when he abandoned protocol and greeted her with a kiss on the lips.

According to biographer William Shawcross, she later wrote: “I took a sharp step backwards – not quite far enough.”

Among the most memorable meetings of a British monarch and a US president was that of Ronald Reagan and the late Queen.

When he came to Windsor Castle in 1982, the pair were famously pictured riding horses together in the grounds.

He met her a further three times in London throughout the 1980s and she gave him an honorary knighthood when he left the White House in 1989.

George HW Bush, wasted no time in making the Queen’s acquaintance, travelling to the UK in May 1989, just five months after he was sworn in.

There were a few red faces when Her Majesty travelled to the US to visit him a year later.

As she stood up to give a speech on the White House lawn, she was partially obscured behind a cluster of microphones that had been arranged for the much taller Mr Bush. He later reassured reporters that the Queen laughed off the incident.

George W Bush‘s state visit in November 2003 was met with huge protests over the Iraq War. Tens of thousands of people crowded into Trafalgar Square, where an effigy of the president was toppled by demonstrators.

The protests did not appear to affect the ‘special relationship’, however, with the Queen visiting the US to meet Mr Bush in 2007, and him returning to the UK to see her a year later.

Barack Obama first met the Queen on a visit to the UK in 2009 when his wife, First Lady Michelle, made headlines for breaking royal protocol and giving Her Majesty a hug.

The Obamas received the full pomp of an official state visit in May 2011.

They visited a final time during the president’s second term in April 2016, when Marine One landed in the grounds of Windsor Castle and the royal couple walked to greet them.

Donald Trump first met the King while he was still Prince of Wales in December 2019, when his mother hosted a state visit to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

His trip was met with huge protests in London, which memorably featured a giant ‘blimp’ that depicted him as a baby.

Despite being accused of breaching royal protocol on several occasions, he described the Queen as an “incredible woman” in one of his speeches.

When Joe Biden visited Windsor Castle in June 2021 it was the first time the Queen had met a head of state alone – following the death of her husband Prince Philip.

It was also the first state visit of any foreign leader after the coronavirus pandemic saw Her Majesty halt royal duties and quarantine at Windsor as part of ‘HMS Bubble’.