The US president has recently returned from a two-day visit across the Atlantic with his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.
During their time in the UK, the pair hit headlines, with Trump being accused of breaking royal protocol with King Charles a number of times. Meanwhile, Melania’s outfit choices garnered a lot of attention.
After a day of events at Windsor Castle, the royals hosted a state banquet on Wednesday evening (September 17), where a number of big names were present.
Among the 160 guests at St George’s Hall were the likes of Apple CEO Tim Cook, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and OpenAI’s Sam Altman – however, Trump said there was one person he ‘asked not [to] be there’.
The Mayor of London.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he headed back to the US, Trump didn’t hold back in his criticism.
He described Sir Sadiq Khan as ‘among the worst mayors in the world‘ and claimed he personally requested that he be kept off the guest list.
The POTUS said: “I asked that he not be there. He wanted to be there, as I understand, I didn’t want him.”
However, the BBC understands that Khan ‘did not seek or expect an invitation’.
According to Trump, Khan has done ‘a terrible job’ as Mayor, accusing him of being a ‘disaster’ on immigration and suggesting ‘crime in London is through the roof’.
For Khan though, who already slammed Trump’s state visit to the UK, it seems the story is quite different.
As per BBC, a source close to the Mayor dismissed Trump’s remarks, saying: “Trump’s politics is one of fear and division. This includes talking down our great capital city.”
“London is a global success story — it’s open, dynamic and safer than major US cities. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons record numbers of Americans are choosing to make London their home.”
When did Donald Trump and Sadiq Khan’s feud start?
This latest spat is just another chapter in what’s become a long-running war of words between the pair.
It kicked off back in 2015 when Khan condemned Trump’s suggestion that Muslims should be banned from traveling to the US.
Things escalated further when Trump challenged the Mayor to an IQ test, and later accused him of mishandling the London Bridge terror attack in 2017.
By the time of Trump’s first state visit in 2019, relations were so frosty that Khan gave permission for the infamous ‘Trump baby’ blimp to be flown over London in protest.
Trump, never one to let things lie, responded by calling Khan ‘a stone-cold loser’.
Fast forward to this year, and the feud is clearly alive and well. In July, Trump branded Khan ‘a nasty person’ during a press conference in Scotland, only for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to cut in and defend him, saying: “He’s a friend of mine, actually.”
While world leaders and royals dined at Windsor, thousands of protesters gathered in Parliament Square to voice their anger at his visit.
Adding to the chaos, four men were arrested after projecting images of Trump alongside convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein onto Windsor Castle ahead of the banquet.
So while Trump’s visit may have been about reinforcing ties between the UK and the US, he clearly still had time to reignite one of his favorite feuds.
