President Trump took a jab at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, saying he requested that he not be around him during Mr. Trump’s historic second state visit to the United Kingdom.
“I didn’t want him there. I asked that he not be there … He is among the worst mayors in the world, and we have some bad ones,” Mr. Trump told reporters during the return trip to the U.S. on Air Force One.
“If you look at Chicago … he’s the equivalent of the mayor of Chicago [Brandon Johnson.] I think he’s done a terrible job. Crime in London is through the roof. The Mayor of London Khan has done a terrible job.”
Mr. Trump said that Mr. Khan is a “disaster” on the illegal immigration issue.
The president said he understood that the mayor wanted to attend the State visit, but that he rejected the idea.
There has been a long-running feud between Mr. Khan and Mr. Trump.
The Labor Party politician, the first Muslim to be mayor of London in 2016, has won two more elections since then. He slammed Mr. Trump and his administration in an op-ed piece in The Guardian just before Air Force One landed in Britain on Tuesday night.
He laid blame on Mr. Trump for the “rising tide of hatred in this country, instead choosing to dabble in dog-whistle politics and dangerous rhetoric themselves.”
Mr. Khan included the 100,000 protesters who marched in London last week for free speech and against illegal immigration as an example of Mr. Trump’s “toxic form of politics” that “is spilling out onto our streets.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.