Trump slams London mayor again on UK visit

TURNBERRY, United Kingdom (AFP) : US President Donald Trump attacked London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan once again at a news conference in Scotland alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who interjected that Khan was his “friend.”

Asked by a reporter if he intended to come to London in September during a state visit, Trump responded affirmatively but then clarified: “I’m not a fan of your mayor. I think he’s done a terrible job.”

“The Mayor of London… a nasty person,” he added.

The comments prompted Starmer to state: “He’s a friend of mine, actually.”

But doubling down on his view of Khan, Trump went on: “I think he’s done a terrible job. But I would certainly visit London.”

There is no love lost between Trump and Khan, like Starmer a member of the Labour Party.

In January, on the eve of Trump’s return to the White House, Khan penned an article warning of western “reactionary populists” posing a “century-defining challenge” for progressives.

During his first term in power, Khan also became embroiled in a war of words after speaking out against a US travel ban on people from certain Muslim countries.

Trump then accused Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital when he was first elected in 2016, of doing a “very bad job on terrorism,” calling him a “stone cold loser” and “very dumb.”

In a podcast recorded before Trump’s re-election on November 5, 2024, Khan accused the incoming president of targeting him because of the color of his skin.

“He’s come for me because of, let’s be frank, my ethnicity and my religion,” he said.

But in a interview with AFP in December, Khan said the American people had “spoken loudly and clearly” and “we have got to respect the outcome of the presidential elections.”

In a statement later Monday, a spokesperson for Khan said the mayor was “delighted that President Trump wants to come to the greatest city in the world.”

“He’d see how our diversity makes us stronger not weaker; richer, not poorer,” he added.