President Donald Trump and first lady Melania walk with Queen Elizabeth II, followed by first lady Melania Trump, Prince Charles, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall into the State Banquet. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania walk with Queen Elizabeth II, followed by first lady Melania Trump, Prince Charles, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall into the State Banquet. Photo / AP
The decision to finally give President Donald Trump a state visit to Britain has caused months of debate among the country's political elite.
Critics of Trump, numerous in Britain, say he is undeserving of an honor that has been given to only two US presidents in the past. Supporters ofthe invite say that the U.S.-British relationship is too crucial at this moment to overlook and that Trump's negative reputation in Britain is exaggerated.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II with US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace in London. Photo / AP
Much of this debate played out when the American leader attended a lavish state banquet at Buckingham Palace with his host and counterpart as head of state, Queen Elizabeth II. This event is the centrepiece of Trump's visit, with some of the most important figures in Anglo-American politics, business and culture likely to be attending.
But, mindful of Trump, some people chose not to attend. A number of prominent names have said they would not accept the invitation to dine with Trump, while others were not invited at all.
The full guest list for the event has not been released yet, although it is expected that more than 150 attended the event. The white-tie event featured royals decked out in state jewels, with strict rules about etiquette - places were set exactly 18 inches apart, for example.
President Donald Trump and his wife Melania are greeted by Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House, in London. Photo / AP
The state banquet in London was a family affair for the Trumps. President Trump and first lady Melania were joined by the president's four adult children.
Senior White House official Ivanka Trump was joined by her husband Jared Kushner, who also works in the West Wing.
Donald Trump Jr. was there with brother Eric Trump and his wife Lara, a Trump campaign official, who is expecting the couple's second child.
A tuxedo-clad Eric Trump tweeted before the dinner that the U.K. is "a very special place" and that it was "an honor for our family to be hosted by Her Majesty."
The president's youngest daughter, Tiffany Trump, was also in attendance.
President Donald Trump, Queen Elizabeth II, first lady Melania, Prince Charles and Camilla at the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace. Photo / AP
On the British side, Queen Elizabeth was host and gave a speech during the dinner.
The queen told Trump that security and a shared heritage link the US and UK. She says "tonight we celebrate an alliance that has helped to ensure the safety and prosperity of both our peoples for decades, and which I believe will endure for many years to come."
Trump said the liberation of millions from tyranny in World War II "forever sealed" the bond between the United Kingdom and United States.
Trump says their nations have common values that will unite them long into the future, including freedom, sovereignty and self-determination.
Watch: President Trump and Queen Elizabeth II reviewed items from the Royal Collection at Britain's Buckingham Palace on June 3.
Much of Britain's political elite, such as soon-to-depart Prime Minister Theresa May, as well as candidates to replace her like Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Environment Secretary Michael Gove, were at the dinner.
Others from the business and cultural worlds were expected to be guests, too, including prominent Americans living in London.
Perhaps just as notable as who is attending the dinner, however, are the invitees who have decided not to. In particular, several high-profile politicians, including the leader of the opposition, have publicly turned down their invites.
US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania with Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House, in London. Photo / AP
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, said in statement in April that Prime Minister May "should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honour a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric."
John Bercow, the high-profile speaker of the House of Commons, has also said he would not attend, as did Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party. Cable wrote in the Financial Times this week that "no amount of pomp, circumstance and royal regalia can disguise the fact that Mr Trump poses a real risk to the world, and to Britain."
It is unusual for high-level British politicians to publicly decline attendance to a state banquet, although not unprecedented. Cable refused to attend a state banquet with the king of Saudi Arabia in 2007, for example.
Another figure not attending is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who is on maternity leave. The American-born duchess has made a number of critical comments about Trump in the past, prompting the president to tell a British tabloid newspaper in an interview that he "didn't know that she was nasty."
President Donald Trump reviews an honour guard in the garden of Buckingham Palace in London. Photo / AP
Other prominent figures may be missing from the event, too - albeit, not because they turned down an invite, but because they never received one in the first place.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, at the centre of a continuing feud with Trump, has said he was not invited to the event but that he wouldn't attend if he was. "We shouldn't be rolling out the red carpet; we shouldn't have a state banquet," Khan said last month, during an interview with LBC, a British talk-radio station.
Trump mocked the relatively popular London mayor as a "stone cold loser" - and short in stature beforte touching down in London.
....Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job - only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!
Other high-profile British politicians may also have missed out on invitations. British media reports suggest that Sajid Javid, the British home secretary and a candidate to replace May as prime minister, was not among those invited to the state banquet.
Last month, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that Trump requested that Nigel Farage, a personal friend and leader of the Brexit Party, be invited to attend the banquet. Farage said this weekend that he was "banned" from meeting the US president, however, due to the wishes of the British government.
Even if they are not at the state banquet, Farage and another Trump friend, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, could well attend a reciprocal event at the U.S. ambassador's London residence on Tuesday.
