Donald Trump has reignited his feud with London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan — this time over a royal dinner.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One after his UK state visit, Trump claimed he personally made sure Khan wasn’t at the state banquet hosted by King Charles at Windsor Castle.
“I didn’t want him there,” Trump said, calling Khan “one of the worst mayors in the world” and a “disaster” when it comes to immigration and crime. “Crime in London is through the roof,” he added.
Khan wasn’t at the banquet — but sources close to him say he never expected an invitation anyway. One ally dismissed Trump’s remarks, saying: “Trump’s politics are about fear and division. London is the opposite: open, dynamic, and safer than many US cities. No wonder so many Americans are choosing to live here.”
This back-and-forth is nothing new. Their feud goes back nearly a decade. Khan, a Labour politician, has repeatedly criticized Trump’s rhetoric, especially his calls to ban Muslims from entering the US in 2015. Trump, in turn, has mocked Khan’s leadership, challenged him to an IQ test, and even slammed his handling of the London Bridge terror attack in 2017.
When Trump made his first state visit in 2019, Khan allowed protesters to fly the now-famous “Trump baby” blimp in the skies of London. And just this summer, Trump called Khan “a nasty person” during a press conference in Scotland — prompting Prime Minister Keir Starmer to cut in, saying: “He’s a friend of mine, actually.”
Despite all the drama, Trump’s visit was full of pageantry, designed to show the strength of US-UK ties. Still, not everyone was celebrating: thousands turned out in Parliament Square to protest, and activists even projected images of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein onto Windsor Castle ahead of the banquet.
So while the red carpets and royal receptions highlighted the closeness between Washington and London, the Trump-Khan rivalry once again stole the spotlight. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia commons.
