Sadiq Khan has doubled down on his accusation that Donald Trump is racist – and says he’ll carry on calling him out.
The London Mayor said he hasn’t changed his mind about the US President-elect, even though others like JD Vance and Elon Musk have. He said the UK has a responsibilty to criticise its “best mate” across the Atlantic.
But he said he would “keep my fingers crossed” that the President-elect will be different in his second term. Before the Presidential election. Mr Khan branded Trump’s policies “sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist”.
He pointed out that some including Vice President-elect Mr Vance – who once likened him to Hitler – had U-turned. But Mr Khan said his views on Trump remain the same.
He told LBC News: “In 2016, JD Vance was an ally of mine, speaking out against some of Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric. Elon Musk, of course, famously is now efficiency member of the Donald Trump‘s cabinet, was criticising Donald Trump for his views on climate in 2017…
“Now JD Vance, Elon Musk and others may have changed their mind about Trump. I haven’t. But I’m giving President Trump elect the benefit of the doubt.
“And let’s hope, fingers crossed, that this President during this time is different from the last one.”
And the London Mayor said the UK has a duty to challenge Trump in his second term. Mr Khan said: “I want our government and our country to continue to have a special relationship with President Trump and the USA. One of the joys about a special relationship is it’s like having a best mate.
“Our expectations are more for a best mate, our closest ally than they are of others. And that means sometimes calling out your best mate or your closest ally when you think they do things you disagree with.”
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REUTERS)
Asked if Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy are “diplomatically handcuffed” and having to “pay homage”, he said: “They’re different right? I understand the importance of trade…
“But you know the old saying, when America sneezes, we catch a cold. America is the one remaining superpower. What America says and does matters, it matters to us for a variety of reasons, of course it matters because of Ukraine and the Middle East, it matters because our commitment to NATO matters, it matters because of the impacts of climate change.
“It matters because of the impact it has on minority communities, on women and, the like. And one of the things, you know, that Londoners want their Mayor to do is to speak up for them.
“And I will continue to speak up for them, even if it means sometimes criticising our closest ally.” It comes the day after an interview on the High Performance podcast was released, in which Mr Khan claimed Trump singled him out because of his race and religion.
He said in the recording, made on September 2: “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.
“He wasn’t coming for me because I’m five foot six. He’s coming for me for – let’s be frank – my ethnicity and my religion, so it’s incredibly personal to me.”
There has long been bad blood between the Labour London Mayor and Trump. Mr Khan criticised his attitudes toward Muslims and called for his visit to the UK to be cancelled. The then-US President – who also made misleading claims about Mr Khan’s response to the London Bridge terror attack – described the Mayor as “a stone cold loser” and “very dumb”.
Mr Khan went on to say: “So you know the fact that I was speaking out against somebody whose policies were sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist, wasn’t because I wanted to come to his attention, [it was] because I have a responsibility to speak out if I think something’s affecting not just Londoners, but affecting all of us.
“It’s not great. Would I do it again? Absolutely, because you’ve got to speak the truth with power, and I’ve got a platform in the sense of explaining that actually the policies of America have an impact on us, positive and negative.”
In a statement after last week’s election, Mr Khan said many around the world will be left feeling “fearful”. Tens of thousands turned out to protest in London on Trump’s last official visit to the UK, with a huge blimp depicting him as a giant baby flown above the capital.