White House is finalizing plans for Biden to meet the Queen
White House is ‘finalizing plans for Biden to meet the Queen’ during his June trip to the UK for the G7
- The White House is finalizing plans for President Joe Biden to meet with Queen Elizabeth II during his trip next month to the United Kingdom
- The trip will mark Biden’s first trip abroad since his swearing-in in January
- Biden will travel to the U.K. for the G7, followed by NATO and European Union meetings in Brussels and his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva
The White House is finalizing plans for President Joe Biden to meet with Queen Elizabeth II during his trip next month to the United Kingdom, which will be his first trip abroad since being sworn-in.
CNN first reported the development Wednesday morning.
Biden will travel to the U.K. for the G7 on June 11, before heading to Brussels, Belgium for a NATO summit and a European Union meeting, and then onto Geneva, Switzerland for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The White House is finalizing plans for President Joe Biden to meet with Queen Elizabeth II during his visit to the United Kingdom next month to participate in the G7
Queen Elizabeth II is photographed Saturday during a trip to Portsmouth. She first met with President Donald Trump more than a year into his one term in office
The White House announced the June 16 location for the Putin meeting Tuesday.
The administration has not made an official announcement on Biden’s meeting with the Queen.
First lady Jill Biden is expected to accompany the president on the trip.
When the two leaders meet, Biden will be the 13th American president the 95-year-old royal has met since ascending to the throne in 1953.
Most recently, former President Donald Trump first met with Queen Elizabeth in July 2018, but that visit was described as a ‘working meeting.’
In June 2019, the Queen invited Trump to the U.K. again for a much more formal visit, with an State Banquet at Buckingham Palace.
The Bidens have befriended Prince Harry, with the duke first photographed with first lady Jill Biden in 2012.
Since then, both the president and first lady have become supporters of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games initiative, a competition for wounded servicemen.
In 2014, Biden joked about how much time Jill Biden and Prince Harry were spending together during an Invictus Games trip.
‘I’m a little worried here, you know what I mean?’ the then vice president said.
The White House was asked for reaction after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s sit-down with Oprah Winfrey in March, when the duchess shared she had suicidal thoughts while pregnant with the couple’s son Archie.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki praised Markle’s ‘courage.’
‘For anyone to come forward and speak about their own struggles with mental health and tell their own personal story, that takes courage and that’s certainly something the president believes,’ Psaki replied when asked if Biden had any reaction to the interview.
She said the White House planned not to comment further on the California-based royals as ‘they are private citizens, sharing their own story and their struggles.’
Trump previously ripped Markle from the White House podium after the couple put out a message encouraging Americans to vote in advance of the November 2020 election, with subtle references that seemed to be an endorsement for Biden.
‘I’m not a fan of hers,’ Trump said in September 2020 to a question posed by DailyMail.com. ‘I would say this – and she has probably heard that – I wish a lot of luck to Harry because he’s going to need it.’
Prince Harry’s relationship with the Windsors is currently on the rocks after he accused the royal family of racism in the March interview Oprah and then suggested in a more recent podcast interview that the Queen and Prince Philip, who died at age 99 last month, failed as parents.
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