London Mayor Sadiq Khan has asserted that former U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of him were motivated by Khan’s ethnicity and Muslim faith. This statement is expected to reignite their longstanding feud, which began during Trump’s first term in office.
The discord between Khan and Trump originated when Khan publicly opposed Trump’s travel ban targeting individuals from specific Muslim-majority countries. In response, Trump accused Khan—the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital, elected in 2016—of performing poorly on terrorism-related issues, labeling him a “stone cold loser” and “very dumb.”
In a notable act of protest during Trump’s 2018 visit to the United Kingdom, Khan authorized the display of a blimp depicting Trump as a diaper-clad baby over Parliament Square.
In a podcast recorded before the U.S. presidential election on November 5 and released earlier this week, Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants, described Trump’s attacks as “incredibly personal.” He stated, “If I wasn’t this color skin, if I wasn’t a practicing Muslim, he wouldn’t have come for me.” Khan further commented that Trump’s policies were “sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist,” and emphasized his responsibility to speak out against them.
These remarks highlight the ongoing tensions between the two leaders, underscoring the intersection of politics, ethnicity, and religion in their public exchanges.
