London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said he would gladly sit down with Donald Trump, even though he has warned that the former US President might be “inadvertently radicalising people” and is “not a force for good”, reports Breaking News.
Mr Khan brushed off recent personal insults made by President Trump during a trip to Scotland, in which Trump called him “a nasty person” and criticised his performance as mayor.
The Labour mayor said that insults like those were “water off a duck’s back”, reports Breaking News.
Still, he reflected that moments like this sometimes make him feel like he’s “nine years old again” and “in the school playground”.
Appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe during the Political Party show hosted by comedian Matt Forde, Mr Khan hit back at Trump, saying: “Somebody who has views like he does about black people, about women, about gays, about Muslims, about Mexicans, thinks I’m nasty. Really. He is the leader of the free world, arguably the most powerful man in the world, and really,” reports Breaking News.
He added that since mid-January – when Mr Trump began his second term – through July, the data shows “there have never been more Americans applying to British citizenship and living in London”.
The Mayor said: “So I think Americans have got good taste by and large,” reports Breaking News.
Mr Khan also expressed hope that Trump would visit London during his upcoming state visit to the UK, and emphasised that the capital’s “diversity” should be viewed as a “strength, not a weakness”.
Discussing the value of that diversity, he said: “I think it makes us stronger not weaker, richer not poorer. And when President Trump says some of the things he does, it brings from the periphery to the mainstream, views that are potentially dangerous,” reports Breaking News.
“He inadvertently – I’m not going to suggest he does it deliberately – he inadvertently could be radicalising people with views that could lead to them doing things that are dangerous,” reports Breaking News.
He voiced concerns that minority communities could suffer discrimination as a result of Trump’s rhetoric, accusing the President of “using London and our diversity as a political football, as a proxy for a culture war”.
The Mayor added: “On a personal level, it is water off a duck’s back, but we can’t run away from the fact that there are some really serious challenges we face as a western society and President Trump, in my view, I speak generally, isn’t a force for good,” reports Breaking News.
Despite his criticisms, Mr Khan said he would still “be more than happy to meet President Trump,” adding that he would want to show him it’s “possible to be proud to be a westerner and a proud to be Muslim, that it is possible to be British, and proud to be British, and be of Pakistani origin and be a law abiding citizen and we aren’t three headed monsters”.
The Labour politician said: “I suspect President Trump may have formed a view of Muslims because of the actions of a small minority of really bad people who are terrorists and use Islam in a perverted way. What I would want President Trump to know is that is a very small fraction of Muslims across the globe. So if there was an opportunity to meet President Trump, I would be more than happy to do so,” reports Breaking News.
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