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Rubbing along?

That decision has proved polarizing. After Trump’s executive order temporarily banning U.S. entry to citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations, the signature count on the petitions grew rapidly. The ban has since been suspended by U.S. courts.

But while the travel ban was widely condemned in Britain, a recent poll also found that more people were in favor of Britain rolling out the red carpet for Trump than were against it. According to the Ipsos MORI-Evening Standard survey, 53 percent of Britons back the visit and 42 percent oppose it.

“Opinion in Britain is very divided,” said Tim Bale, a politics expert at London’s Queen Mary University. “People look at Trump with fascination. For some, it’s horrified fascination. Others admire him as a ballsy, can-do guy who says a lot of things that many people think.”

Bale said that May’s courting of Trump was probably driven by the Brexit vote and by Britain’s need to cement alliances with new trading partners after it leaves the European Union. Offering the state visit so soon, Bale said, “probably had to do with an assessment of Trump’s character that this is someone who is susceptible to flattery.”

Trump has spoken warmly about Britain, where he owns two golf resorts, and reportedly told May shortly after he won the election that his late Scottish-born mother was a “big fan” of Queen Elizabeth II.

He is not the first U.S. president to be accorded a full state visit to Britain, traditionally including a horse-drawn-carriage ride with the queen and a formal banquet at Buckingham Palace. But he is the first to be invited within a week of his inauguration.