Updated September 18, 2025 at 11:54 AM PDT
While President Trump was at Windsor Castel for his second state visit to the United Kingdom on Wednesday, an hour's drive away hundreds of anti-Trump protesters marched down Regent Street in London.
Organized by the Stop Trump Coalition, the street was full of signs and chants rejecting his rhetoric towards migrants, and alleged ties to dead financier Jeffrey Epstein.
"I'm not happy about the fact that he's been allowed to come to this country," Chris Porteus, who traveled from Devon, told NPR. He held a sign that read, "no to racism, no to Trump."
Among the news outlets hustling to cover the protests and all the other activity surrounding Trump's visit is the conservative upstart TV channel GB News.
It was founded four years ago and has quickly become one of the most popular news outlets in the country. In July, the official ratings agency, Barb, found that GB News overtook the BBC and Sky News to become the most-watched news channel in the UK.
"I think the idea was that the other news channels and a lot of the media establishment in Britain had forgotten what they were there for originally — to speak for the people or to bring the news to people that actually mattered to them," Michael Booker, the editorial director, told All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly.
"I'm from the north of England and I felt that particularly places in the north of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, they'd been forgotten," Booker said. "So, we want to get into those communities and listen to what was going on in those communities."
Kelly toured the newsroom and spoke with staff, including political editor Christopher Hope, about what it's like covering such a big event.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Interview highlights
Mary Louise Kelly: As I have mentioned to people here in London, "Hey, I'm going to go see the GB News newsroom."
They say, "they're on the right." Your coverage leans to the right on the political spectrum. Is that fair? Is that true?
Michael Booker: I think we try and be common sense. I don't come in as editorial director thinking we need to be right today or left today or — I just think we just need to be correct.
Kelly: Are you the Fox News of Britain?
Booker: We don't set out to be the Fox News of Britain, but in terms of understanding where we are, just simply, that — I suppose that's the nearest to what we are.
But we're very different from Fox News.
I was brought in because I'd been the editor of three national newspapers and they'd been across the spectrum, as well. It's not just, you know, a few media executives like myself telling you what to think. We want to hear what you think.
Kelly: Quite a few of your presenters come from the right side of the political spectrum. Is that intentional?
Christopher Hope: I don't — I didn't hire the presenters. I think we...
Kelly: So, is that a fair characterization?
Hope: I think there's a sense that the mainstream media is a bit left of center and a bit in a kind of a bubble where our viewers tell us they don't raise issues they care about, such as immigration, such as concerns about crime.
Now, the broadcasters themselves that I'm talking about would dispute that, but we hear that from the viewers.
So, you know, we want to have the entire conversation. We do want to talk about the issues that they, our viewers, care about, like immigration, that it's OK to be worried about immigration — it's not a racist thing or a far-right thing — and just trying to talk to them and understand that and give them a voice because, previously, you know, they felt looked down on, I think.
Kelly: GB News recently announced a partnership with Trump Media. The press release, which is up on your website, quotes Devin Nunes, who is the Trump Media chief executive. He describes the goal of the partnership in part as, "putting another dent in the global woke news monopoly." Is that how you see it?
Booker: Well, that's the way that he sees it. I'm not going to argue with that. Whether some people are woke or not, I don't particularly care, really. My job, purely and simply, as editorial director is to do the best I can for the people. We are the people's channel.
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