In a recent high-profile podcast appearance Sadiq Khan made some eye-catching statements about president-elect Trump that dont help UK-US relations. The London mayor brought up past disagreements suggesting Trump had targeted him due to his background and faith
The timing is quite off-putting – with Trumpʼs white-house comeback just weeks away (after winning a ground-breaking multi-ethnic coalition of voters) Khans comments create un-needed tension. David Lammy the current foreign secretary has already made things complex by calling Trump a “tyrant“ in the past; these new remarks might make things worse
While Khan spends time discussing US politics London faces real-world issues that need fixing:
- Rising knife-crime stats
- Un-affordable housing market
- Dirty public transport
- Police force problems
The most interesting part is how Khan mis-reads Trumps recent victory. The president-elect got support from different groups: winning two-thirds of native-american votes getting 46% of latino voters and even getting backing from muslim-american mayors like Bill Bazzi and Amer Ghalib
Instead of making un-helpful comments about US politics the london mayor should focus on fixing the cityʼs problems – thats what voters care about these days