President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are greeted by The Viscount Hood, Lord-in-Waiting, center, right, as they arrive at Stansted Airport near London, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit during which the British government hopes a multibillion-dollar technology deal will show the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance.

State visits in Britain blend 21st-century diplomacy with royal pageantry. Trump’s two-day trip comes complete with horse-drawn carriages, military honor guards and a glittering banquet inside a 1,000-year-old castle — all tailored to a president with a fondness for gilded splendor.

King Charles III will host Trump at Windsor Castle today before talks the next day with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British leader’s rural retreat.

Starmer’s office said the visit will demonstrate that “the U.K.-U.S. relationship is the strongest in the world, built on 250 years of history” — after that awkward rupture in 1776 — and bound by shared values of “belief in the rule of law and open markets.” There was no mention of Trump’s market-crimping fondness for sweeping tariffs.

The White House expects the two countries will strengthen their relationship during the trip and celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, according to a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was unclear how the U.K. was planning to mark that chapter in their shared history.

“The trip to the U.K. is going to be incredible,” Trump told reporters Sunday. He said Windsor Castle is “supposed to be amazing” and added: “It’s going to be very exciting.”

Trump is the first U.S. president to get a second state visit to the U.K.

The unprecedented nature of the invitation, along with the expectation of lavish pomp and pageantry, holds dual appeal to Trump. The Republican president has glowingly praised the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and spoken about how his own Scotland-born mother loved the queen and the monarchy.

Trump, as he left the White House on Tuesday, noted that during his past state visit he was hosted at Buckingham Palace.