WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will not be bringing a delegation with him when he travels to London for the State funeral of Queen Elizabeth IIwhich makes the departure of former presidents like Barack Obama and Donald Trump unlikely.
The White House announced Sunday that Biden had accepted an invitation to attend the funeral. But the invitation “was reserved for the president and the first lady,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.
What we know about invitations to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral
- Buckingham Palace has not allowed Biden to bring a US delegation with him to next Monday’s ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
- Since the palace invitation was for President Biden and Jill Biden, former US presidents could only attend if they received their own invitations. Former President Jimmy Carter did not receive an invitation, his office said. Spokespersons for Obama, Trump, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton did not comment.
- Westminster Abbey is expected to be full for the funeral, so attendance by foreign leaders will be limited to one representative from each country and their partner, according to Foreign Office documents obtained by Politico. The Department of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a USA TODAY request for comment.
Who should attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral?
Presidents, prime ministers and kings and queens from around the world are expected to be in London for Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral on September 19 in Westminster Abbeythe same church where his official coronation took place in 1953.
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Have former presidents ever traveled to large-scale overseas funerals?
In the old days, presidents invited their predecessors to accompany them to a large funeral.
President George W. Bush attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II with two former presidents – his father, George HW Bush; and Bill Clinton. Barack Obama brought George W. Bush with him on Air Force One to Nelson Mandela’s funeral, while Clinton and Jimmy Carter traveled to the service separately.
Other presidents have called on their predecessors to attend state funerals when they could not attend themselves.
President Theodore Roosevelt attended the state funeral of King Edward VII of Great Britain in London in 1910 at the request of his successor, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt, dressed in a suit, top hat and coat thrown over his arm, walked in the funeral procession.
Roosevelt was popular in Britain and was considered the equivalent of European royalty, so it made sense that Taft would choose him to represent the United States, said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. from Dallas.
What the experts say about the situation
- “The UK government has every right to limit the size of delegations,” said Lewis Lukens, who served as deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in London from 2016 to 2019.
- British authorities don’t try to determine who is invited to an event such as a royal funeral, “they let the countries decide who (attends),” Lukens said.
- If, for example, Biden and the first lady had been unable to attend and the United States had decided to send Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, the “Britons would be okay with that “Lukens said.
- In some cases, the British government could make an exception and allow the United States to bring a larger delegation due to the special relationship between the two longtime allies. But not in this case due to “high demand” for seats, Lukens said.
- Even if Biden had been allowed to bring former presidents with him, Trump likely wouldn’t have been invited, political analysts said.
- The animosity between the two men is so poisonous – Trump still refuses to accept 2020 election resultswhile Biden accused Trump and MAGA’s Republicans in a prime-time speech of threatening the very foundations of democracy – that it is unfathomable that Biden would ask Trump to join him at the Queen’s funeral, officials said. political analysts.
- “Never has Trump acknowledged Biden’s victory in 2020 more, and for all sorts of well-documented and well-understood reasons, Trump poses a distinct threat to our own democracy,” said William Howell, a political scientist at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. “The honorable thing right now is not to bring Trump back into the fold.”
- Past presidents have always been called upon to represent the country at such events to demonstrate American friendship, goodwill and respect, Engel said. Trump, however, is different, Engel said, noting the former US president’s unpopularity with the British public.
- Only 32% of Britons expressed confidence that Trump would do the right thing about world affairs in a Pew Research Center survey in January 2020.
- Politics aside, there’s an even more practical reason for Trump to stay away from the queen’s funeral, Engel said. “Nothing should be done that can overshadow the deceased person,” he said. “And the funeral (of the Queen) is not about American presidents or American politics. The funeral aims to honor the oldest sovereign in British history. If Trump were to leave, that’s all we’ll talk about.
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Contributor: Kim Hjelmgaard
Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS.
