Key events
About 5,000 people attending anti-Trump rally in Westminster, Met police say
The Metropolitan police says they think about 5,000 people are attending the anti-Trump rally in Parliament Square.
The ‘Stop Trump Coalition’ demonstration is now in Parliament Square where a rally is taking place. Road closures are in place.
We estimate up to 5,000 people are in attendance. pic.twitter.com/iUW6xHJimS
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) September 17, 2025
In London the comedian Nish Kumar, who is hosting the anti-Trump rally in Parliament Square said last week’s Unite the Kingdom protest puts the UK in “an incredibly scary position”.
He said he was “incredibly scared right now” but urged protesters to come together before leading a chant of “say it loud, say it clear, Donald Trump’s not welcome here”.
“We have a common aim, there are more of us than there are of them, let’s not give up this fight,” Kumar said.
Former Labour MP Zara Sultana also referred to Saturday’s protests.
She said protesters “marched with the backing of international figures of the far right”, and included Trump among them.
What is the offence of malicious communications?
Some readers have been asking about the offence of “malicious communications”. This was the reason given by the police when they arrested four men after pictures of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were projected on to the walls of Windsor Castle last night.
On Bluesky Paul Bernal, a law professor, says a lot of people do not appreciate what the offence involves. He is referring people to the Malicious Communications Act, which says someone commits this offence if: a) they send an “indecent or grossly offensive” message; and b) it’s with the intent of causing “distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated”.
What is beating retreat?
Here is the Ministry of Defence’s explanation of what the beating retreat ceremony actually is.
Beating Retreat is a military spectacle and ceremony which originated in the early years of organised warfare and symbolises the end of the day when camp gates were closed and ceremonial flags were lowered.
The ceremony takes place on Horse Guards Parade every year in June, when the salute is taken by a member of the Royal Family.
Apparently this is the first time there has been a beating retreat during a state visit.
(That may be in part because, when previous presidents have visited the UK on state visits, the organisers have not had to keep the president locked up behind a castle wall for a whole day because they don’t want protests to spoil public-facing visits.)
The MoD has also explained some of the music chosen for the ceremony.
Much of the music chosen for this Beating Retreat ceremony is relevant to the historic relationship between the UK and US:
Eagle Squadron commemorates US pilots who flew in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War
Golden Friendship is a classic American march which is a favourite of the First Lady. It is often played for her at the White House. Its title is particularly appropriate to today’s ceremonies.
Eternal Father is international associated with fallen seafarers. It is often played at sunset to mark the end of the day and reflect on shared sacrifice.
Battle Hymn of the Republic is often played at the White House, including for President Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill at the end of the Second World War.
Trump and Charles ‘two sides of same coin’, says anti-monarchy group, Republic
Republic, the group campaigning for the abolition of the monarch in the UK, has joined the anti-Trump protest in London. Explaning why, its spokesperson Graham Smith said:
Charles and Trump are two sides of the same coin. Corrupt billionaires with a distaste for democracy.
People in the UK have also raised concerns about Trump’s attacks on the US constitution. They worry about the erosion of checks and balances and the centralisation of power.
Yet the UK is already there. Charles is exempted from hundreds of laws and shies away from scrutiny and accountability.
We marched today with one simple message – corrupt billionaires are not the answer.
In a reference to the fact that Trump’s opponents in the US organised a large number of protests againt him earlier this year under the banner “No Kings” (they wanted to highlight his authoritarianism), Smith said:
It’s time to fix our democracy and defend the country from those who might want to undermine what democratic rights we have, whether that be Charles or Trump.
No Kings Here. No Kings There. No Kings Anywhere.
Back at Windsor, Donald Trump is watching a beating retreat ceremony. Keir Starmer and his wife, Victoria, are with him.
They are listening to the Massed Bands of the Royal Marines, the Coldstream Guards and the Royal Air Force, with the Old Guard Fifes and Drums from the US Army Band.
Despite being its prince, William does not have any power in Wales – actual or even ceremonial – which is just as well for him, because new polling shows that politics there is heading for deadlock.
YouGov has today published a write-up of a poll it produced with ITV Wales on voting intention for the elections to the Senedd (Welsh parliament) next year. It shows Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, narrowly ahead of Reform UK (the Trump-type rightwing populists). Labour, which has been the dominant political party in Wales for the last century, is a distant third.
As Will Hayward, the Welsh political commentator, illustrates with this graph in a post on his Substack blog, if these results were replicated at the election next year, a Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition would have a majority of one, and (almost certainly) the first minister would be Plaid’s Rhun ap Iorwerth. All previous first ministers have been Labour.
The report also shows Reform UK in the lead in Wales in Westminster voting intention for the first time in a YouGov poll.
At the Royal Collection exhibition, the Prince and Princess of Wales walked with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to examine the artefacts, PA Media reports.
Looking at an “America is Lost” essay written by George III in 1784, Kate remarked: “It’s the storytelling behind it.”
She added to William and Rubio: “In the future, if you think about doing that through email, it’s very different.”
William made a remark which prompted laughter from the trio about “all the emails being laid out”.
The prince was impressed with a long white tickertape which curled around across one of the tables.
The tickertape message was sent to President James Buchanan from Queen Victoria in 1858 using cutting-edge technology at the time to deliver the first Transatlantic communication, demonstrating the newly developing warmth of feeling between Britain and the United States.
William said as he took a closer look: “The whole message – wow.”
Knowing President Trump’s enthusiasm for Twitter, perhaps someone from Buckingham Palace thought he would be interested in a previous president who mastered the latest communications techniques.
Anti-Trump protesters denounce US president as ‘fascist’
Rachel Hall
Rachel Hall is a Guardian reporter.
Thousands of people gathered in the streets of central London for the main Stop Trump Coalition protest on Wednesday afternoon. Many held placards expressing anger and frustration with a wide range of political issues, from climate breakdown and abortion rights to genocide in Gaza, nuclear disarmament, the monarchy, the rise of Reform and racism. Common placards displayed slogans stating “make polluters pay”, “no to racism, no to Trump”, “stop arming Israel” and “stop Trump, stop fascism”.
Other protesters adopted creative approaches, including one woman who dressed as the statue of Liberty, holding a book stating “the statue of taking Liberties”, another who dragged a Trump effigy on the ground, and one person dressed in a costume echoing the inflatable Trump baby blimp from the 2018 protest, clutching a list titled the “Epstein Files”, listing the people allegedly implicated.
Protesters who spoke to the Guardian said they were participating to signal their exasperation with Keir Starmer and the UK government, as well as their rage about Donald Trump’s prominence on the world stage, and the impact of his divisive policies.
One art teacher from south London had hand painted a placard featuring portraits of Starmer and Trump stating “appeasing hate empowers fascists”. She said she wanted to send a message to Starmer that she was disappointed in the Labour government, and that his decision to invite Trump for a second state visit was “appalling”.
She was inspired by her South African father to join the protest, given the eventual impact that civil disobedience had on ending apartheid. She told the Guardian:
Whatever the general public can do, even if it means going on a protest and just marching and raising your voice – however small it is, it’s better than nothing.
Chloe Evans had travelled up from Dorset to express her fears around the rollback she felt the Trump administration was having on women’s rights, including abortion and rape prosecution. She said:
We need to show American citizens that they still have friends over here, who are thinking about them. And we’re doing our best to pressure our government to take action.
Sam Weinstein, an American who has lived in London since 2012, joined the protest to represent the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. He said:
I’m outraged that they would even consider inviting Trump to this country. Since when do we elect convicted criminals, and since when do we let them govern the world?
John, who grew up in the southern states of the US, said he had seen the rise of the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement up close, and feared that we are now “watching the rise of fascism”, with the lessons of the previous century increasingly forgotten. He travelled up from Bournemouth to hold a placard that said he had been “radicalised” by Trump, because he had never before felt so motivated to participate in politics.
Thousands of anti-Trump protesters march in London
But in London the anti-Trump protesters are out in their thousands.
In Windsor a small number of protesters outside the caastle are outnumbered by throngs of the world’s media and a large police presence, PA Media reports. PA says:
Police horses could be seen in the car park of Windsor and Eton Central railway station, with officers watching people arriving at the station and sniffer dogs patrolling the streets of the historic town.
On a grey afternoon in Windsor, one man held a sign which read “Fascist go home” while standing on the road outside Windsor Castle which is flanked with American and British flags.
More than half Britons think Trump presidency has been bad for UK, poll suggests
YouGov has released some new polling on President Trump’s visit to the UK. Here are the key findings.
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A plurality of Britons think the government was wrong to invite Trump for a second state visit, the poll suggests. Only 30% of people say inviting Trump was right, and 45% say it was wrong.
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Britons are fairly evenly divided between those who think Keir Starmer has been too positive towards Trump (30%) and those who think he has got the balance right (27%), the poll suggests.
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