The recently-concluded State visit of US President Donald Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, to the United Kingdom has provided global netizens with a host of quotations, symbols and optics bringing the imperial past to the fore. King Charles III and Queen Camilla as gracious Royal hosts welcomed the Trumps at the historic Windsor Castle where the pageantry of the spectacular military guard of honour by The King’s Guard on the lawned Quadrangle brought back to life Pax Britannica and Pax Americana – the ‘times of peace’ initiated by the two great powers who ruthlessly ruled the world, exploiting its lands, forests and oceans for centuries.

President Trump, in the UK for a historic second state visit, experienced the trademark pomp and grandeur with a formal banquet hosted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the Windsor Castle. Official photographs of the two couples at the banquet reveal the resplendent and dignified, though aging British Royalty with the all-smiling US President and First Lady, standing head above shoulders over their hosts. President Trump was in a sleekly cut tailcoat wore a bow tie, white on white, with the aplomb of a just-arrived victor.

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Tailcoats, as historians of sartorial elegance tell us, were integral to aristocratic horsemanship; the equestrian dress which gave the horse-rider mobility and flexibility to hunt on horseback, and as the Americans love to say, shoot from the hip. That seems to be the mood of President Trump as he posed with a wide smile to the camera, the smile of the buccaneer, an all too famous ‘I don’t care a damn’ Trump look and his inimitable hairstyle. First Lady Melania was in a floor-length canary yellow dress with a light violet belt, her bare shoulders trumpeting her boldness, as she stood tall in the royal red, maroon and ornately gilded interiors of Windsor Castle.

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Yellow is not only the colour of sunshine and hope, very American and forceful, it is also the colour of deceit and untruthfulness, tinted with shocking dishonesty. Being the youngest of the four in the photograph, she exuded confidence and bravado of the arm-candy of the world’s most powerful man, even though he remains the most vilified at home and abroad. The aging Queen Camilla wore a deep purple dress, flowing to the floor, fully covering her arms. Besides the bejewelled tiara, she had donned the Royal Family........

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