The President of the United States last night hosted the heir to the British throne at an intimate 60-person black tie dinner at the official residence of the US Ambassador, Winfield House in Regent’s Park.
Mr Trump and Prince Charles were joined by their wives, the Prime Minister, and officials and dignitaries from both nations for the three-course meal in London, which was held to reciprocate Monday night’s lavish banquet in the Buckingham Palace ballroom.
In contrast to the sophisticated Palace menu which included steamed halibut and strawberry sable, – and was served with a £2,000-a-bottle Chateau Lafite – last night’s fare was closer to the heart of the teetotal President with a taste for plain food: beef, potatoes, ice cream, and £30-a-bottle Californian red wine.
It came at the end of a busy day for the President in which he held a joint press conference with Theresa May, met privately with Nigel Farage, and avoided a smaller-than-expected protest in central London.
The President and the First Lady, in red, hosted the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cambridge, in white, to a formal dinner
Mrs Trump chatted with Suzanne Ircha, wife of the US Ambassador, and Camilla before the meal. Mr Trump famously is a teetotaler who encourages his family and associates not to partake. The Duchess however was seen with a glass of wine
Camilla and Charles, and Donald and Melania Trump, photographed shortly before the dinner began inside Winfield House
As the two couples met Mrs Trump extended her hand in the manner in which the Queen received the President yesterday
The President was seated between the Prince and the Prime Minister and drank his customary diet coke as they enjoyed wine. Pictured: Donald Trump talking to Theresa May before the food was served
Guests arrived shortly before 8pm and Charles and Camilla were greeted by the First Couple who stood outside the entrance of the stately home to meet them personally.
Marine guards opened the door to royal the car and President greeted the prince with a handshake.
Camilla, 71, looked elegant in in a white evening gown by Fiona Clare with a pretty embroidered overlay and a bejewelled necklace – a striking contrast to Melania’s striking red cape-style gown and loose, dark locks.
The prince and the president, both smart in black dinner jackets, chatted warmly following their tea on Monday, which ran over by 15 minutes. The foursome posed briefly for pictures for going inside.
Mr Trump raised a glass as he proposed a toast ‘To Her Majesty The Queen and Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall’
By reply Charles toasted ‘The President of The United States of America and Mrs Trump’ at the Winfield House dinner
The heads of government met several times yesterday, including at Downing Street where they held a joint press conference
The White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was seated to the Prince’s right, with Jeremy Hunt to Theresa May’s left
President Trump’s children also joined the dinner and were seen leaving their London hotel earlier, ‘First Daughter’ Ivanka leading the fray in a stunning white off-the-shoulder gown and her hair in a chignon. His younger daughter, Tiffany, wore a grey full-length dress.
Inside there were no speeches, unlike the previous evening, but the Prince and the President both gave brief toasts. President Trump said: ‘To Her Majesty The Queen and Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.’
Charles in his toast said: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen please would you join me in toasting The President of The United States of America and Mrs Trump.’
Donald Trump, Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt were seated at the top table yesterday evening along with Prince Charles
On a table to the right of the President’s, sat some of his children including Eric and Tiffany, in Winfield House last night
The President’s eldest daughter Ivanka was seated next to Ambassador Johnson at the dinner in Regent’s Park
UK Foreign Secretary, and a front runner for the Tory leadership, Jeremy Hunt was among the guests and dignitaries
The First Lady dined with the Prime Minister’s husband, Philip May, and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall at a different table
The setting was far more intimate than at Buckingham Palace on Monday with the house’s dining room set with six tables each with around 10 places.
Lavish decorations included a centrepiece of cream roses on each circular table, which were covered with tablecloths patterned with flowers and birds, and laid with gold decorated plates and gold cutlery.
Gold candlesticks flanked the floral displays, while the six tables were surrounded by gold chairs.
Mr Trump sat on one table, with Theresa May to his left and the Prince on his right; while at another Melania dined with Philip May and Camilla.
Other guests at the dinner included Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, as well as the Ambassador and his wife and the Trump’s four adult children.
Guests dined on fresh burrata cheese with heritage tomatoes, basil, and Maldon salt; grilled fillet of beef with pommes Anna, watercress pure, celeriac and chantenay carrots; followed by summer berries, homemade vanilla ice cream with Muscovado sugar tuile.
The American wines all came from the Iron Horse winery in northern California: a chardonnay with the starter, a pinot noir with the main course, and champagne with dessert.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pose ahead of a dinner at Winfield House for Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
The President and the Prince shook hands once the royals’ limousine arrived at the Ambassador’s residence Winfield House
The US Marines standing guard outside the residence saluted smartly as the First couple and royal couple entered
The First couple and royal couple photographed at the entrance to Winfield House in Regent’s Park in London
The dining room was set for a dinner for President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Prince Charles, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at the U.S. ambassador’s residence
The President dined with the Prime Minister and Price Charles among others on his table, one of six in the dining room
The beautifully-calligraphied menu amounts to beef and potatoes followed by vanilla ice cream
The menu, selected by the First Lady, was sure to please her husband who is a man of famously plain tastes who is regularly seen dining on fast food and has never touched a drop of alcohol.
Though no doubt sourced from the finest ingredients and prepared by the finest chefs, the meal amounted to beef and potatoes followed by vanilla ice cream.
And while Monday’s wine list included bottles of 1990 Chateau Lafite – one of only five First Growths from the Bordeaux region of France and one of the most prestigious and expensive wines in the world – the Iron Horse bottles served last night each cost less than £50.
Mr Trump is famously a teetotaler who also encourages his children and associates not to partake. Before the dinner, chatting with Melania and the Ambassador’s wife, Camilla was the only one of the three women to be pictured with a glass of wine.
Normally the Lord Mayor of London would hold his own banquet on the second night of a state visit by a foreign leader.
But when it comes to US presidents, it has become something of a tradition for the royals to dine at Winfield House, with Charles and Camilla attending on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, who had a busy day on Monday and will be joining the D-Day commemorations in Portsmouth with President Trump later today.
The building was enclosed by tight security with the road to the residence fenced off and the perimeter guarded by large numbers of uniformed police. Inside the perimeter staff moved around in golf buggies and US secret service officers stood sentinel.
Winfield House, a red brick Georgian-style mansion built for the Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton in 1936, replaced a smaller white stucco Regency villa on the site.
It stands in 12.5 acres of lush grounds in the north west corner of the park behind 15 ft iron gates on land that was once part of a ‘great forest, with wooded glades and lairs of wild beasts, deer both red and fallow, wild bulls and boars’.
The Trump entourage including his youngest daughter Tiffany (left) sweep out of their central London hotel to head to dinner
U.S. President Donald Trump arriving at Winfield House in the rain on Tuesday during his state visit to London
The motorcade with US President Donald Trump’s limousine, nicknamed ‘The Beast’ arrives back at Winfield House, the residence of the Ambassador of the United States of America to the UK, in advance of the dinner
Mr and Mrs Trump, who met Prince Charles and Camilla on Monday, above, hosted the heir to the throne last night
Winfield House in Regent’s Park, the residence of the US Ambassador, has the second-largest private garden in London after Buckingham Palace itself
Earlier in the evening the Trump family emerged from the luxury five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Mayfair’s Park Lane, a floor of which they have taken at a cost of £965,921.
Amidst massive security, members of the President’s family headed off in a fleet of mini-buses to travel to the US Ambassador’s residence for the banquet.
Special services personnel manned every door alongside hotel security and Metropolitan police to block any intruders with fears of protesters getting close to the American First family.
Among the extensive entourage were his son Donald Trump Jr, daughter Ivanka Trump and daughter Tiffany Trump, who wore Asprey diamond mesh bracelets and an emerald ruby and sapphire ring, and carried an Asprey clutch.
At the end of the evening the SUVs carrying the Americans returned to the InterContinental in Mayfair where they are staying
Tiffany Trump in a flowing grey gown was among those seen returning to the hotel after the three-course meal had finished
The dinner came at the end of a more turbulent day of the state visit, following the royal charm offensive on Monday.
Anti-Trump protesters viciously attacked a fan of the President with a milkshake in London, moments after Jeremy Corbyn made a firebrand speech to a crowd of a few tens of thousands of anti-Trump protesters in the capital.
the Labour leader obliquely accusing the President of ‘creating a sense of hate’ and fostering racism.
Despite promises of hundreds of thousands of protestors, only a few tens of thousands turned out in the London rain, but there were still ugly scenes. Demonstrators chanted ‘Nazi scum’ at one man before throwing a milkshake at him while a sole police officer tried to stop a brawl breaking out.