Just a handful of Londoners turned up to see the launch of a balloon caricature of Sadiq Khan. The balloon was meant to "humiliate" Khan as revenge for his attitude to Donald Trump.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot/J. Ng
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Organizer Yanny Bruere told reporters on Saturday that the 10-meter (32-foot) balloon of London Mayor Sadiq Khan launched from Parliament Square was "retaliation" for the "Baby Trump" blimp that Khan had allowed to be flown over Westminster in July.
"I think a certain amount of respect should be afforded to the leader of the free world and the greatest ally the UK has," he said.
Khan had said at the time that Trump, on a visit to the UK, was "not welcome here."
In Pictures: UK protests against President Donald Trump's visit
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire as the president attended a dinner with Prime Minister Theresa May. An even bigger rally is set to take place in London on Friday.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Dunham
The Trump angry baby balloon
A large balloon depicting the US president as a giant infant will be allowed to fly over London during the president's four-day visit to the UK after the capital's Mayor Sadiq Khan gave his permission. Scottish police, however, said that the balloon could not fly over the Turnberry golf club Trump owns on the west coast of the country.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Dunham
Angry Oxfordshire
Trump and his wife, Melania, met British Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip for a formal dinner at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on Thursday. Hundreds of protesters descended on the castle to voice their opposition to the president's visit.
Image: Getty Images/M. Cardy
Protest in the capital
Most of the protests against Trump have taken aim and his anti-immigrant rhetoric, as well as his administration's policy of separating undocumented parents and children who cross the US border. Although Trump has said this practice will be stopped, thousands of children remain separated from their parents and face great difficulty locating their relatives.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/R. Pinney
'I think they like me'
Despite the protests, Trump insisted ahead of his trip to the UK that he was well-liked in the country. "I think they like me in the UK. I think they agree with me on immigration," he told reporters in Brussels. He then reminded the press that his mother was from Scotland.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Akmen
Mass demonstration planned
As the Trumps dined with the Mays, protests in the British capital took place outside Winfield House, the residence of US Ambassador Woody Johnson. The Trumps will be staying with Johnson on Thursday night, one day before a mass demonstration against Trump's policies is set to take place in London.
Image: Getty Images/J. Taylor
Not the first time
Last year, activists began circulating a petition to block a state visit from Trump that eventually made its way to the floor of Parliament. In the end, the president canceled his visit before the UK government took any official steps.
Image: DW/B. Wesel
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Bruere, who describes himself as a free speech advocate and has previously been accused of anti-Semitism, told reporters the aim of the exercise was "to put Sadiq Khan in the same position and humiliate him in his hometown, in London."
The balloon was financed by 60,000 pounds (€68,000, $77,000) of crowdfunding.
The crowdfunding page said the campaign was also a protest against Khan for allowing crime to rise to "unprecedented" levels.
Some of those who attended the launch wore T-shirts reading "Make London safe again." Khan has been criticized by Trump for his handling of security and crime in the capital.
UK protesters inflate Trump blimp
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The yellow bikini was chosen, Bruere said, because Khan had banned London's transport network from using ads that the mayor said "created body confidence issues," after a protein shake poster featuring a model in a yellow bikini had been widely criticized.
Khan argued in July that Londoners had a right to peaceful protest and told television news on Saturday that people were welcome to watch this stunt too.
"If people want to spend their Saturday looking at me in a yellow bikini they're welcome to do so. I don't really think yellow's my color though," he told ITV News.