London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Sadiq Khan accused Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of him due to his “ethnicity” and Muslim Faith, a statement likely to spark the long running clash between the two political figures.
The heated debate started between Trump and khan during Trump’s first term when khan publicity criticized the US travel ban on citizens from specific Muslim countries. This was the start of a cold war between the two leaders.
Trump then accused Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a Western Capital when he was elected in 2016 of doing a “very bad job on terrorism” and also called him, “stone cold loser” and “very dumb”.
In response, the mayor sanctioned the launch of a blimp depicting Trump as a baby in a doa[er which soared over Parliament Square protests during when Trump visited Britain in 2018.
Then during the US president’s visit, the balloon flew next to the Houses of parliament in Parliament Square Gardens.
The balloon was funded with nearly 17,000 in crowdfunding donations and a spokesperson for the baby trump group described it an “obscene mutant clone of the president.
When a question was asked from the spokesperson of the Mayor, he replied, “The Mayor supports the right to peaceful protest and understands that this can take many different forms’.
Speaking to a podcast released this week and recorded on November 5, Sadiq Khan, a son of Pakistani immigrants and the first Western mayor, said the past taunting him was “incredibly personal”.
He added, “If I wasn’t this color skin, if I wasn’t a practicing Muslim, he wouldn’t have come for me,” he told the High Performance podcast, which interviews prominent people in different sectors. He’s come for me because of, let’s be frank, my ethnicity and my religion”.
During a podcast which was recorded amid Donald Trump’s election campaign, he said, “It affects me and my family. What worries me, though, is that it’s not just about me and my family – it’s about the fact that he’s the leader of the free world”.
“So, you know, the fact that I spoke out against someone whose policies were sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, wasn’t because I wanted his attention but because I have a responsibility to speak out when something’s impacting not just Londoners but all of us”.
He added, “This is the president of the USA, a country we all admire and love; we love Americans, we love American culture. But America is like a lighthouse. They can be a source of good, spreading hope and love, but also they can spread hate.
“It’s not easy. Would I do it again? Absolutely, because it’s important to speak truth to power, and I’ve got a platform to explain that American policies do affect us sometimes positively, sometimes negatively.”
Khan insisted that despite their past feud, he would still be open to a meeting with Trump
“I would love Donald Trump, whether he wins or not, to come to London.”
He continued, “Let me show him around our wonderfully diverse communities.
“I’d take him to the Pride march next summer, to a mosque, to meet some of our communities and show him that it’s perfectly compatible to be a Westerner and a Muslim, and perfectly compatible to treat women with respect, to be a leader and a man”.
Many members of the Labour’s party which are now on senior government posts including the FOreign Secretary David Lammy were the critique of Trump when they were in opposition during his Trump’s first tenure.
Lammy in 2018 called him “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath”.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made efforts to build a positive relationship with the president-elect, congratulating him on his recent “historic election victory”. He said their call was “very positive, very constructive”.