Prez Trump takes a swipe at ‘unalarmed’ mayor
washington — US President Donald Trump, in a flurry of Sunday morning tweets on the London attacks, criticised the city’s mayor and bemoaned what he described as political correctness when it comes to national security.
Trump went after London Mayor Sadiq Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed”. Khan did use those words in a television interview, but it was to reassure Londoners about a stepped up police presence they might see. “No reason to be alarmed. One of things the police and all of us need to do to make sure we are as safe as we possibly can be,” Khan said.
The president, who used his initial response late on Saturday to promote his travel ban that courts have blocked, returned again to national security. “We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse,” Trump tweeted.
His first comment on Twitter late on Saturday was: “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”
In the final tweet in his morning series, Trump noted that the London attackers used a van to slam into pedestrians and then assaulted people with knives. “Did you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck.”
The London mayor’s office said that Khan has “more important things to do” than respond to an “illinformed” tweet sent by US President Donald Trump. — AP, AFP
washington — US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged the world to stop being “politically correct” in order to ensure security, after seven people were killed in terror attacks in London.
“We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people,” Trump wrote on Sunday morning. “If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.”
He continued: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan — elected last year and the first Muslim to head a major Western capital — had earlier said Britons should not be alarmed to see a higher police presence on the streets of London following the incident.
Earlier, Trump offered US help to Britain and promoted his controversial travel ban as an extra level of security for Americans.
“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK, we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!” Trump wrote on Saturday.
Trump also spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May to offer condolences and offered Washington’s “full support” in investigating and bringing the perpetrators to justice, the White House said in a statement.
Senior British ministers last month criticised the United States over intelligence leaks relating to a bombing at a pop concert in Manchester which killed 22, some of them children.
In another tweet on Saturday, Trump said “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”
The US Department of Homeland Security issued a statement late on Saturday saying “At this time, we have no information to indicate a specific, credible terror threat in the United States”
Trump’s appeal for his travel ban, which he says is needed to protect Americans from terrorist attacks, followed his emergency request that the Supreme Court reinstate the executive order that would bar people entering the United States from six predominantly Muslim countries.
Critics say his reasoning is flawed and assail the ban, which has been blocked by lower courts, as discriminatory.
The US State Department condemned what it called “the cowardly attacks targeting innocent civilians” in a statement. — Reuters