The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has accused Donald Trump of using language akin to that of “the fascists of the 20th century” in an article for the Observer, written ahead of the US President’s three-day state visit to the UK. Mr Trump and his wife Melania are due to be guests of the Queen, with large protests planned in the capital on Tuesday.
Mr Khan said Mr Trump was “one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat”, citing Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage in the UK as using “the same divisive tropes of the fascists of the 20th century” with new methods. He also criticised Mr Trump for attempting to interfere in the Conservative Party leadership race by backing Boris Johnson.
Mr Trump’s comments in an interview with the Sun, in which he endorsed Mr Johnson and described the Duchess of Sussex as “nasty”, drew rebukes from UK politicians. The Leader of the Commons, Mel Stride, said the President was entitled to his opinion but would not pick the next prime minister. Jeremy Corbyn called the intervention “entirely unacceptable interference”, while Jo Swinson, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said Mr Trump and Mr Johnson were “cut from the same cloth”.
The Mayor has had a long-running feud with Mr Trump, who challenged him to an IQ test in 2016 and accused him of “pathetic” behaviour after the 2017 London Bridge attack. Protest organisers are expecting at least 250,000 people to gather between Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square when Mr Trump meets Theresa May in Downing Street. They have also claimed that US officials pressured the Metropolitan Police to impose an exclusion zone around the President’s route.
