HUNDREDS of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Britain to protest against Donald Trump’s “stoking of fear and hate” as he spent yesterday desperately trying to repair the damage he had done to Theresa May’s Brexit plan.

The US President apologised to the Prime Minister for an incendiary newspaper interview, in which he suggested her Chequers Plan for a softer Brexit would “probably kill” a future UK-US trade deal.

Mr Trump also criticised her premiership and claimed she had refused his offer of advice on how to handle Brussels.

But later he dramatically changed his tune, saying a trade deal was “absolutely possible”. He lavished praise on Mrs May, who, he said, was a “fantastic woman…doing an incredible job” and he insisted the UK and US enjoyed the “highest level” of a special relationship.

As the President observed a UK-US special forces display at Sandhurst and then went on to Chequers for talks with the PM before taking tea with the Queen at Windsor Castle, protesters began to gather at various locations north and south of the border.

The largest gathering was in London, where an estimated 250,000 protested with the biggest demonstration centred on Trafalgar Square. A large caricature of a baby Donald Trump, complete with nappy, flew over Westminster.

However, the protesters behind the 20-foot blimp were refused permission to fly it at Holyrood as officials decided it would “not be an appropriate use of the Parliament's grounds”.

Lucy Guy, a TV comedy writer, brought a handmade poster to the London protest, which read: "Not even your wife likes you."

In Glasgow as Mr Trump prepared with his wife Melania to fly to Prestwick Airport to begin a weekend of golf at his Ayrshire course of Turnberry, some 2,000 people turned out in George Square.

Campaigners’ placards carried messages against the President's policies, including "give the weans Irn Bru not iron cages" while others urged him to go home with signs saying: "Bolt ya rocket and make Scotland great again."

Among the protesters was Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, who urged the President to reappraise his whole political approach.

He said: "My message to Trump is to think again about racism, think again about your misogyny, think again about your Islamophobia, think again about climate change, think again about trade unions and workers' rights.”

His Labour colleague Jeremy Corbyn questioned why Britain was “rolling out the red carpet” for the President, noting how he had suggested Boris Johnson would make a great Prime Minister.

"It's a very strange thing to do, to come on a visit to another country, to meet that country's prime minister, and then announce that you would like to see as her successor a person who's just resigned from her Government,” said the Labour leader, adding: “It really isn't anything to do with Donald Trump."

The President sparked criticism across the political divide after he commented on Mrs May’s softer Brexit plan, telling The Sun: ““[If]they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal...I would say that that would probably end a major trade relationship with the United States.”

But after a working lunch at the PM’s country retreat in Buckinghamshire, Mr Trump changed tack.

He told a joint press conference that it was “absolutely possible” to do a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain and suggested The Sun's article was “fake news”.

The President told Mrs May: "Whatever you do is OK with me[on Brexit]. Just make sure we can trade together."

He heaped praise on her negotiating skills and said: "She's a very smart, very tough, very capable person and I would much rather have her as my friend than my enemy, that I can tell you."

Asked how special the UK-US relationship was, he mused: “It’s the highest level of special; am I allowed to go higher than that? You’re very special people, it’s a very special country and I have a relationship here; my mother was born in Scotland, so very important”.

Mr Trump also claimed immigration had caused Brexit and linked it to terrorism in Europe, claiming it had damaged the cultural fibre of the continent.

“It has been very bad for Europe. Europe is a place I know very well and what has happened is very tough….I mean, you see the same terror attacks that I do. We see them a lot.

"I just think it's changing the culture. It's a very negative thing for Europe.”

In sharp contrast, Mrs May insisted immigration had been “good” for Britain.

She said: "We have a proud history of welcoming people who want to come to our country to contribute to our economy and contribute to our society.”

In a separate development, a former Whitehall staffer told the Huffington Post website the President “totally hates Nicola Sturgeon”.

He said: “He spends lots of his time bitching about Sturgeon. He loathes Salmond too. But why spend so much time talking about Sturgeon in a phone call with Theresa May?”