London, UK

Donald Trump met Britain's Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle on Friday but the 92-year-old monarch was forced at one point to walk around the US president after he halted abruptly during a ceremonial inspection of the guard.

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Trump's first visit to Britain as president was not the full state visit he had originally promised, but he was heralded by military bands on his arrival at Windsor, before he and First Lady Melania went into the castle for tea with the queen.

The queen greeted the pair with a smile, although she had earlier glanced at her watch as she waited for their arrival.

While inspecting the guard at Windsor, Elizabeth appeared to give direction to Trump but then the president abruptly halted and Elizabeth was forced to walk around him.

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Queen Elizabeth's tea for the Trumps was due to last 25 minutes according to the White House's schedule, the last part of their official visit.

He arrived at Windsor after a morning spent visiting Britain's royal military academy at Sandhurst and held talks with Prime Minister Theresa May at her country residence, Chequers where he secured a "great" post-Brexit trade deal with lavishing praise on Prime Minister Theresa May and contradicting his own withering assessment of her strategy publicised hours earlier.

On Thursday, Trump shocked Britain's political establishment when he criticised May's plans for ties with the European Union after Britain leaves in March.

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In a newspaper interview published just hours before holding talks with May, Trump said her Brexit strategy would "kill" any chance of a trade deal and said she had not listened to his advice on how to negotiate with the EU.

But, as the two leaders stood together for a press conference in the garden of May's grand 16th-Century official residence Chequers, Trump said the British leader was doing a "fantastic job", added it was up to her how to conduct Brexit, and that a free trade deal was very much on the table.

Relations had never been more special, he said, and any criticism was "fake news".

"Once the Brexit process is concluded and perhaps the UK has left the EU, I don't know what they're going to do but whatever you do is OK with me, that's your decision," Trump said.

"Whatever you do is OK with us, just make sure we can trade together, that's all that matters. The United States looks forward to finalising a great bilateral trade agreement with the United Kingdom. This is an incredible opportunity for our two countries and we will seize it fully."

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through London on Friday to demonstrate against the US president's visit.

Trump is due to fly to Scotland later on Friday for a private visit where he will spend two days at a golf course he owns, before heading to Helsinki for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.