Donald Trump’s visit is BIG NEWS here in Belgium. It’s the headliner of every newspaper and every news broadcast is starting with this topic. His visit has an influence on our daily life today: the airspace will be closed at the moment he arrives, different streets in our capitol city are closed for traffic, there is a huge perimeter where you can’t park your car or bike, people can’t put their trash outside, busses have to take another route and the subway and trains don’t stop at the Brussels Schuman Station. Even the highway around Brussels and a part of the big higway ‘E40’ will be cleared from traffic so it can not hinder Donald Trump’s ‘Beast’. The local police is telling people to avoid the city center if possible.
This is what he takes with him to Belgium:
- A delegation of 1000 people
- 56 Vehicles
- 14 Limousines
- 30 Cargo planes
Some other facts about his visit:
- He arrives Wednesday 24 may at 4 p.m. (CEST) with the Airforce One at Brussels (Melsbroek Airport)
- He leaves thursday 25 may at 9 p.m.
- The Belgian airspace will be closed at the time of landing and departure
- 4000 to 5000 Belgian Policemen are deployed for his visit!
- The Netherlands police department is sending a Hawk, specialised in dealing with drones
What is President Trump doing here?
Wednesday 5 p.m.: Royal Audience and working meeting with Prime Minister
Queen Mathilde & King Filip (source)
- Trump & Melania are going to an audience at the Belgian Royal Palace by King Filip & Queen Mathilde
- Later on there wil be an 45 minute working meeting with the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.
This working meeting can become interesting. Because Donald trump was talking about Brussels in his election campaign and he stated: "It's like living in a hellhole right now". Prime Minister Charles Michel replied to that statement on a conference with the next speech: "I keep forgetting his name, but there is a candidate who is running for president, he called Brussels a hell-hole. He wanted to be with us tonight, but we canceled his invitation. Brussels is many things but it is foremost an international hub of the third most globalized economy of the world”. (source - English video of that speech)
Prime Minister Michel was very confident that Trump would never win the election and always had a “joking tone” when he talked about trump in the Belgian media. I hope the Trump administration did their job and they know about this! I wish I could watch this meeting! Guess who is laughing now ;-)
Thursday 10 a.m. European Quarter
Source - European commission
Trump will visit the European Quarter and will talk with Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commision and with Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council and later on with Antonio Tajani, the President of the European Parliament.
Thursday noon: Lunch wit French President Macron
President trump wil have a lunch with the new French President Macron at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels. On this image you see Macron holding a cryptocurrency hardware wallet, the 'Ledger Blue'. Let us hope Macron is talking about cryptocurrency and he can convince President Trump to join STEEM!
Thursday 3 p.m.: NATO Headquarter
President trump is going to have a meeting in the NATO-headquarter in Evere. Later there will be a ceremony for the opening of the new NATO headquarters with a militairy air parade with combat aircrafts flying over the headquarter.
As well an very interesting meeting, because Trump claimed that the NATO was ‘obsolete’. Later on he stated that the alliance was no "longer obsolete" anymore. President trump wants that he countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization increase their defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product, what could be very difficult for some of the members…
Demonstration against Trump
On Wednesday at 5 P.M. there will be a demonstration against Trump. It will start at the Brussels-Nord train station. According to the Facebook Evenement Page, there will be 10,000 people present.
So, now you find out how we, Belgians, get the news about Trump's visit and what it does in our daily life. After writing this, i gonna open up a delicious Belgian beer and eat some Belgian chocolate!
Zijn belgen blij dat Trump op visite is?
haha, neen, het zorgt voor files, treinen worden afgeschaft, je mag op veel plaatsen niet door... :D Maar het is echt gek hoeveel aandacht dit krijgt!
There even is a livestream on the natinal television!