Trump got the message: London Mayor
london — London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said that US President Donald Trump had “got the message” from Londoners after cancelling his visit to the city.
Trump had claimed he had scrapped the visit because he did not want to open the new US embassy in the British capital, but Khan on Friday suggested the real reason was because he would not be welcome, CNN reported.
President Trump got the message from the many Londoners, Khan said. He said his countrymen love and admire America and Americans but find Trump’s policies polar opposite to the city’s values, Khan said in a statement released on Twitter on Friday.
“Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems he’s finally got that message. This reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place.”
The Mayor said Trump’s visit would “without doubt have been met with mass peaceful protests”.
Large demonstrations are expected to accompany any visit to the British capital by Trump, who is deeply unpopular here, said CNN.
A petition to stop Trump from making an official state visit to Britain garnered over 1.8 million signatures in 2017, in a backlash over his controversial travel ban.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson fired back at Khan on Twitter, saying on Friday that he would “not allow US-UK relations to be endangered” by the London Mayor, whom he referred to as a “pompous puffed up popinjay in City Hall”.
A UK official said on Friday that the invitation to Trump for a state visit, first extended by May during her visit to the US early in Trump’s presidency, still stands, the CNN
I am not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts’, only to build a new one in an off location Donald Trump, US President
report said. “The invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted,” the official said.
The official drew a distinction between the state visit, which would include a visit with Queen Elizabeth II and royal trappings like a horse parade.
While a working visit, would include a meeting with May and other diplomatic formalities like opening the embassy.
Many Londoners have made it clear that donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems he’s finally got that message Sadiq Khan, London Mayor
After Trump declared his disapproval with London’s new US embassy as the reason for cancelling his visit to the city, Madame Tussauds placed a waxwork of the President outside the building, CNN reported.
The British government blamed the threat of mass protests for President Trump’s decision on Friday to cancel a visit to London to open the new US embassy, and warned
The united States is the biggest single investor in the united Kingdom — yet Sadiq Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary
that criticism of the White House risked harming US-UK relations.
Prime Minister Theresa May offered Trump a state visit to Britain one year ago, when she became the first foreign leader to visit the White House after his inauguration.
But the date has yet to be set in the face of deep hostility to the president in Britain, prompting speculation it could be turned into a lower profile trip focused around the opening of the new embassy.
Trump tweeted overnight that he would not attend the ceremony, initially scheduled for next month.
“I am not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts’, only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars,” he wrote.
“Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon — NO!”
The embassy move is in fact the result of a decade-long project initiated by the administration of former Republican president George W. Bush.
His decision not to come was welcomed by critics outraged by the US travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, and more recently, Trump’s decision to re-tweet antiMuslim videos posted by a British far-right organisation.
There is likely some relief in the British government at Trump’s decision, which would have caused at the very least a major policing operation.
A spokesman for May’s Downing Street office said the invitation for the state visit “has been extended and accepted. No date has been confirmed”. “The US is one of our oldest and most valued allies and our strong and deep partnership will endure,” he said.
Relations between May and Trump became strained in November after he re-tweeted anti-Muslim videos posted by a British farright group. — IANS, AFP
The president’s physical exam today at Walter reed national Military Medical Centre went exceptionally well. The president is in excellent health Ronny Jackson, Examining doctor