President Donald Trump and London Mayor Sadiq Khan are back to trading jabs as the president takes a trip to the UK for a three-day state visit.
The president’s trip will consist of meetings with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and a tour of the Westminster Abbey, but apparently not any meetings with Khan, who wrote an op-ed in The Guardian attacking Trump shortly before his visit.
Khan accused Trump of bolstering the “far-right,” writing, “That’s why it’s so un-British to be rolling out the red carpet this week for a formal state visit for a president whose divisive behaviour flies in the face of the ideals America was founded upon – equality, liberty and religious freedom.”
The president was asked Sunday night on his way to board Marine One if he would meet with the London Mayor, and Trump replied with a characteristic insult.
“No, I don’t think much of him. I think that he’s a — he’s the twin of de Blasio, except shorter,” Trump shot back.
The president went on to call out Khan on Twitter, calling him a “stone cold loser” and reiterating the jab comparing him to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
.@SadiqKhan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly “nasty” to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
….Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
Khan, however, was apparently quite prepared for a showdown with his old foe. On Monday, the first day of the president’s visit to the UK, Khan released a pre-taped video he made with Elle UK criticizing Trump’s “values.”
“President Trump, if you’re watching this, your values and what you stand for are the complete opposite of London’s values and the values in this country,” Khan says in the video. “We think diversity is not a weakness, diversity is a strength, we respect women and we think they are equal to men, we think it’s important to safeguard the rights of all of us, particularly the vulnerable and the marginalized.”
The fraught relationship between the two politicians kicked off in 2016 when Khan rejected then-candidate Trump’s so-called “Muslim Ban” and endorsed his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. (RELATED: London Mayor Reject’s Trump’s Muslim Ban ‘Exception’)
Trump, who had previously said it would be a “terrific thing” if Khan did well as the first Muslim mayor of London, went on to criticize him repeatedly for his seemingly weak stance on crime and terror.
The feud only continued when Khan gave protesters permission to fly a baby Trump float during the president’s trip to London last summer.