LONDON — President Trump has canceled a trip to London to open the new $1 billion U.S. Embassy, avoiding protests promised by political opponents.

Some British lawmakers had said Trump was not welcome in Britain after he re-tweeted videos from a far-right British group and criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan following a terror attack last year.

But Trump said his decision, announced in a late-night tweet, was because of concerns about the embassy’s move from the elite Mayfair district to a far less fashionable area of London.

“Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts,’ only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!” Trump tweeted.

While the former embassy sat in a tony area of designer boutiques and expensive restaurants, the new building is in a former industrial area south of the River Thames that is being redeveloped into a new commercial and residential district.

The relocation was announced in 2008 under the Bush administration. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle said the decision to move to the five-acre site came after a “long and careful process.”

A Trump visit has been in the cards since Prime Minister Theresa May visited the United States a few days after Trump’s inauguration last year.

May proclaimed the strength of the “most special relationship” between the two countries and the government extended an invitation for a state visit as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II.

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