Trump’s Split-Screen Persona on Blaring Display in U.K. Visit

LONDON — He quoted Roosevelt and gently greeted frail veterans at a D-Day commemoration, hours after proclaiming Bette Midler a “psycho” and Chuck Schumer a “creep.” He exalted soldiers’ bravery while dismissing his avoidance of service in Vietnam, calling it a country “nobody heard of.” He toasted Britain’s queen at a Buckingham Palace banquet, after calling London’s mayor a loser.

For President Trump, reconciling his impulses with the expectations for an American president has often posed a hurdle. And when he had idle time during his three-day trip to Britain, the gap between the two — which has come to define his presidency — was jarring.

Mr. Trump’s trip to Britain ended Wednesday much as it had begun: as a split screen of a president embracing regal respectability on one side and settling scores on the other.