US President Donald Trump has a fraught history with London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan – The Mirror takes a look back at some of the standout moments from their long-running feud
Donald Trump brands Sadiq Khan as a ‘nasty person’
Donald Trump reignited his feud with Sir Sadiq Khan yesterday as he branded the London Mayor a “nasty person” in a televised sit-down.
Mr Trump, who is on a golfing trip to Scotland, took a shot at Sir Sadiq when he was asked if he will visit London during his state visit in September. The Republican politician said he didn’t know, before hurling abuse at the mayor: “I’m not a fan of your mayor. I think he’s done a terrible job. He’s a nasty person.”
It was an an uncomfortable moment for Keir Starmer, who was sitting next to the President and was forced to lean over and interject, saying: “He’s a friend of mine.”
But it was not the start of tensions between Mr Trump and Sir Sadiq. The US President has a fraught history with the London Mayor dating back to his last presidency.
The Mirror takes a look back at some of the standout moments from their long-running feud.
READ MORE: Donald Trump reignites feud with Sadiq Khan with savage jibe at London Mayor
IQ test jibe
In 2016, Mr Trump challenged Sir Sadiq to an IQ test after he said the US President’s views on Islam were ignorant.
The then newly elected London Mayor branded Mr Trump’s views on Muslims “ignorant” and said: “I’m clearly hoping Hillary Clinton wins.” Sir Sadiq criticised Mr Trump after he vowed to ban Muslims from the US during the 2016 presidential campaign.
He said: “Donald Trump’s ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe. It risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the hands of extremists.”
In an interview with Piers Morgan, Mr Trump later said he was offended by Sir Sadiq’s comments and even challenged him to an IQ test. “He doesn’t know me, hasn’t met me, doesn’t know what I’m on about,” he said. “I think they’re very rude statements and frankly tell him I will remember those statements. They’re very nasty statements.”
Trump’s astonishing ‘pathetic’ comment
In 2017, Donald Trump launched an astonishing Twitter attack on Sir Sadiq Khan following a terrorist attack in London, calling the London Mayor’s response “pathetic”.
Eight people were killed and 48 injured when terrorists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before launching a deadly knife attack. In the aftermath, Sir Sadiq sought to reassure Londoners, telling people there would be an increased police presence in the capital but that there was “no reason to be alarmed”.
The US president took issue with the comment, tweeting: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his “no reason to be alarmed” statement. MSM [mainstream media] is working hard to sell it!”
Sir Sadiq’s office initially responded by saying the London mayor had “more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks”.
Sir Sadiq allows giant ‘Trump Baby’
In 2018, Sir Sadiq granted permission for a giant blimp depicting Mr Trump as an angry, orange baby to fly over London during the US President’s visit.
The mayor said he supported the decision taken by the Greater London Authority, adding that it was not for him to be a “censor”.
In a frank exchange with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain at the time, Sir Sadiq said: “My views are irrelevant. The issue is ‘Do they have freedom to protest, freedom to assemble and should they be allowed to do so?’ If it’s peaceful and it’s safe they should, Piers.”
The 20ft (6m) high inflatable, dubbed “Trump Baby”, was granted permission to rise above Parliament Square Gardens.
‘Stone cold loser’
In 2019, moments before he landed in the UK for a three-day state visit, Mr Trump launched a vicious attack on Sir Sadiq, branding the mayor a “stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London”.
Tweeting from the plane, the US President wrote: “Sadiq Khan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly ‘nasty’ to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me.”
Misspelling Sir Sadiq’s name, Mr Trump continued: “Kahn [sic] reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height.”
A spokesman for the mayor at the time said the “childish insults should be beneath the president of the United States”.
’20th Century fascist’
Mr Trump’s “loser” comment came a day after Sir Sadiq had compared President Trump to a “20th Century fascist”, saying he was guilty of “defending white supremacists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites” in Charlottesville and “amplifying messages from racists in this country”.
He wrote in The Observer: “President Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat. The far right is on the rise around the world, threatening our hard-won rights and freedoms and the values that have defined our liberal, democratic societies for more than 70 years.
“Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage here in the UK are using the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century to garner support, but with new sinister methods to deliver their message. And they are gaining ground and winning power and influence in places that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.”
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Trump branded ‘racist bigot’
Also in 2019, Donald Trump launched an attack on Sir Sadiq over knife crime in London after three killings in the capital in less than 24 hours. The US President was branded a “racist bigot” after also amplifying a racist tweet
The US President branded the British politician “a disaster” while re-tweeting far-right activist Katie Hopkins. He said: “LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster – will only get worse! He is a national disgrace who is destroying the City of London!”
It sparked a furious backlash from now-Energy Secretary Ed Miliband saying: “What is it about Sadiq Khan and what he stands for that leads the President to be tweeting rubbish about him? Oh yes, Trump’s a racist bigot, who tried to ban Muslims from America and hates anyone who stands up to him.”
Critics – including Jeremy Corbyn – also slammed Mr Trump for re-tweeting a post by Hopkins in which she referred to London as “stab-city” and “Khan’s Londonistan”..
‘Trump is racist’
Last year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan labelled Donald Trump a “racist” and claimed that the then President-elect singled him out because of his skin colour.
Mr Khan, who was repeatedly attacked by Trump during his first term in the White House, said his policies were “sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist”. He said: “He’s coming for me for my ethnicity and my religion, so it’s incredibly personal to me.”
Speaking to the High Performance podcast before November’s Presidential Election, the London Mayor said: “It’s personal, let’s be frank. If I wasn’t this colour skin, if I wasn’t a practising Muslim, he wouldn’t have come for me.
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