Baby Trump: the giant inflatable doll that makes the US president feel unwelcome in London
Donald Trump's first official visit to the United Kingdom has caused a stir in that country.
So much so that the president of the United States implied that he did not feel comfortable with some of the protests organized against him for this Friday, according to he said in an interview with the British newspaper The Sun.
The president, who arrived with his wife in the UK on Thursday, cited a particular reason for not feeling welcome: an inflatable doll known as "Baby Trump."
It is a six meter tall helium balloon that presents him as a baby in a diaper, with an angry orange face and small hands.
"I think if they launch airships to make me feel like I'm not welcome, there is no reason for me to go to London," Trump told The Sun.
"I used to like London as a city. I haven't been there in a long time. But if they make you feel like you're not welcome, why would I stay there?" He lamented.
Wallpapers for the doll
The "Baby Trump" was funded through a crowdfounding campaign and until Thursday, the project had raised $ 40,000, about $ 1,000 more than what the creators of the protest were asking for.
Nona Hurkmans, spokeswoman for "Baby Trump", explained to the BBC why they chose this way of demonstrating.
"We feel like Donald Trump is being a baby," she said. "His style and tone of him to lead a country is very immature, very childish. He is the type of person who hits another when he is on the ground."
"He makes fun of disabled people in public. I don't think he deserves much more respect from us than the giant balloon," the woman added.
"We want to make sure Trump knows that the whole of Britain despises him and laughs at him," say the creators of "Baby Trump".
More than 10,000 people signed a petition for the inflatable to be allowed to fly around the city and London Mayor Sadiq Khan authorized the "baby" to do so for two hours.
"It is peaceful and it is allowed. I cannot censor it. It is not for me to decide what is tasteful and what is not," Khan said.
But some UK residents have described the globe as "disgraceful" and "disrespectful".
Legacy?
On Thursday afternoon, Trump and his wife were greeted with a red carpet at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, about 10 miles from the city of Oxford, and shared a dinner with British Prime Minister Theresa May, her husband, and other members of the British government.
When Trump arrived in the UK, a group of protesters gathered in front of the US ambassador's home in Regent's Park, London, and about 1,000 people protested near Blenheim, the birthplace of Winston Churchill.
On Friday, when the biggest protests in London against Trump are expected, the American president will meet once again with Theresa May, and then with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle.
Then he will fly to Scotland and spend the weekend at Turnberry, his golf course in Ayrshire.
In Glasgow there will also be a protest to welcome Trump. The Scotland United Against Trump group expects the event to bring together some 3,000 people.
In addition, there will be another demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament, in Edinburgh, on Saturday.
These cities will have an important police force in the next few days.
But some people are happy to have Trump as a guest.
"Probably his detractors give him fuel to keep him the way he is," Sarah Elliott of the Republicans Abroad group told the BBC.
"He wants to strengthen the Anglosphere. He wants to strengthen the Western allies," she added. "Trump's legacy will last much longer than a balloon in the sky."
