Divisive and dangerous ...Khan’s bitter war of words with Trump
LONDON mayor Sadiq Khan was branded “rude and nasty” by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump yesterday.
Mr Trump, who looks set to be the Republican candidate for the White House, hit back at Mr Khan after he had described him as “ignorant” and challenged the mayor to take an IQ test.
On ITV’s Good Morning Britain yesterday, Mr Trump said he had congratulated Mr Khan on his victory earlier this month of becoming the first Muslim London mayor and “wished him well”.
But the mayor was angered by Mr Trump’s suggestion that Muslims should be barred from entering the US.
A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “Donald Trump’s views are ignorant, divisive and dangerous.
“It’s the politics of fear at its worst and will be rejected at the ballot box just as it was in London.
“Sadiq has spent his whole life fighting extremism, but Trump’s remarks make that fight much harder for us all.
“It plays straight into the extremists’ hands and makes both our countries less safe.”
He said there were “no plans” to seek direct talks and mocked Mr Trump’s challenge to the mayor to take an IQ test, adding: “Ignorance is not the same thing as lack of intelligence.”
In his interview, Mr Trump told host Piers Morgan: “Number one, I’m not stupid, OK? I can tell you that right now, just the opposite.
“Number two, I don’t think I am a divisive person. I am a unifier, unlike our president now.”
He added: “We have a real problem and we have to discuss it. I have many Muslim friends... I was with one the other day – one of the most successful men – he’s Muslim and he said, ‘Donald you have done us such a favour, you have brought out a problem that nobody wants to talk about’.”
Rejecting claims that he is anti-Muslim, he told Morgan: “Absolutely not. I am anti-terror.
“There’s something going on that’s not good. There’s something going on that’s very bad.
“There’s something that you are not understanding and maybe the mayor of London is not understanding.”
Mr Trump warned that if he becomes president Britain will not have a “very good relationship” with the US while David Cameron is prime minister after Mr Cameron refused to apologise for calling him “stupid”.
Asked whether Mr Cameron was concerned at the prospect of a diplomatic rift, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has made his views on Donald Trump’s comments very clear.
“He continues to believe that preventing Muslims from entering the US is divisive, stupid and wrong.”
He said Mr Cameron was “committed to maintaining the special relationship” whoever wins the presidential election, insisting: “He has been clear that he will work with whoever is president of the United States”.
No proposal had been made for a phone call between the Prime Minister and Mr Trump, but Downing Street would be willing to consider it, he added.
Chancellor George Osborne also said he and Mr Cameron stood by their comments on Mr Trump’s views on Muslims.
But he added: “But he is an American presidential candidate and we will talk to him because it is in our interest to talk to our allies like the United States.”