The president’s children seemed to materialize overnight in London. But their appearance with the British royals was the culmination of a month’s planning.
LONDON — When Queen Elizabeth II welcomed the president on Monday for his first state visit to Britain, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner watched from a Buckingham Palace balcony. Later, at a state banquet, Eric Trump posed for photographs. During dinner, Donald Trump Jr. tucked into a menu including lamb and halibut as Tiffany Trump chatted with the queen’s private secretary.
“Looking forward to visiting Buckingham Palace for the first time. The U. K. is a very special place (for so many reasons) and it is an honor for our family to be hosted by Her Majesty,” Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organization with his brother, Donald Jr., wrote on Twitter before the dinner.
They were also present on Tuesday at Mr. Trump’s news conference with the British prime minister, Theresa May. The president has also said that his children would join him on a tour on Tuesday of the Churchill War Rooms, and American officials said they might go to Normandy for the French leg of the trip, too.
Whether they had official roles in the visit or not, the extended Trump family seemed to materialize in London overnight — all save the president’s youngest son, Barron, who stayed home. But Monday’s lavish audience with the British royals was the culmination of more than a month of planning by White House officials who have grown accustomed to accommodating President Trump’s children, whether that includes redrawing plans for a state visit or evicting guests from their seats at the State of the Union address.
As Mr. Trump presides over a White House with unprecedented turnover, he has relied on his children the same way he has for decades — asking them for advice or seeing them as surrogates in the fight against his real and perceived enemies.
On this visit, another family opportunity surfaced: The Kennedys have long occupied the American political culture as the unofficial royal family, but this week, the Trumps appeared to present themselves as the 2019 version.
“He’s surrounding himself with his family in this kind of certainly royal family, prince-and-princesses way,” Gwenda Blair, the author of “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire,” said in an interview. “Just as traditionally crowned heads surrounded themselves with their progeny, he has surrounded himself with his progeny.”
Privately, White House officials say that some of the Trump children, particularly those working in the White House, see themselves this way. One senior official, who did not want to speak publicly about internal planning, said that Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump in particular had grown more emboldened with their requests to be accommodated at official events.
About a month before the Europe trip, several members of the Trump family informed the White House that they wanted to participate.
