What the papers say: Should Trump’s state visit go ahead?

Donald Trump’s January visit to Britain now looks to be in doubt following the furore over his tweets. Diplomats in the United States are said to have put the plans on ice, according to the Daily Telegraph. Good, says the Guardian in its editorial this morning: it’s time to ditch the state visit. Tump’s decision to retweet anti-Muslim videos shows ‘again that he panders to bigots and is no friend of this country’, the paper argues. Brexit already makes this a ‘dangerous’ moment for Britain, says the paper, which goes on to suggest that further allying ourselves to a ‘thuggish narcissist’ will hardly help matters. Theresa May was right to rebuke the president this week, but she ‘should go further’ and ‘withdraw the invitation for a state visit’ says the paper. It is vital that ‘Britain should not allow Mr Trump’s racism to be dressed up in pageantry’. Of course, this does not mean that Britain should not have a relationship with the United States.