Donald Trump has claimed mass immigration has rendered London ‘unrecognisable’ after Europe ‘opened its doors to jihad’ – insisting he would ‘never’ allow the same to happen in the US.
These latest comments point to a long-running feud that Trump, 77, has had with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who is up for reelection on May 2 against a Conservative opponent who he has likened to the Republican candidate for the Oval Office.
‘We’ve seen what happened when Europe opened its doors to jihad. Look at Paris, look at London, they’re no longer recognisable,’ Trump told supporters in a May Day rally in Wisconsin as he hit the campaign trail away from his legal troubles.
‘I’m gonna get myself into a lot of trouble with the folks in Paris and the folks in London, but you know what, that’s the fact. They are no longer recognisable and we can’t let that happen to our country.’
‘We have incredible culture, tradition. Nothing wrong with their culture, their tradition – we can’t let that happen here and I’ll never let it happen to the United States of America.’
Sadiq Khan has responded to Trump’s comments.
‘Today is an opportunity to show Donald Trump and my Tory opponent that London will always choose hope over fear and unity over division. This election will be close. Polls are open until 10pm this evening and you will need photo ID to vote,’ he told .
‘We’ve seen what happened when Europe opened its doors to jihad. Look at Paris, look at London, they’re no longer recognisable,’ Trump told supporters in a May Day rally in Wisconsin
The rally on Wednesday marked Trump’s return to the campaign trail despite his legal troubles in New York
‘Today is an opportunity to show Donald Trump and my Tory opponent that London will always choose hope over fear and unity over division,’ Khan told
Prior to a 2018 visit to London, while he was a sitting president, Trump slammed Khan as having ‘done a terrible job in London.’
Khan responded, telling the Huffington Post that he would be happy to meet Trump to explain ‘in a respectful, courteous manner where I think he’s wrong on a couple of issues.
In another exchange, Trump said that he felt Khan had ‘done a very bad job on terrorism.’
The same year, as Trump arrived in the UK capital for a state visit, protesters received permission from Khan’s office to fly a blimp showing Trump dressed as a baby while crying.
In 2016, Trump had a similar beef with then-London Mayor Boris Johnson when he claimed on the campaign trail: ‘London and other places… are so radicalised that the police are afraid for their own lives.’
Johnson dismissed Trump as ‘ill-informed.’
‘The only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump,’ he famously quipped back.
Two years later, Trump told then-Prime Minister Theresa May that there were ‘no-go areas’ in London due to the presence of jihadis. May said later she disagreed with his assertation.
In 2016, while Boris Johnson was London’s mayor, he joked that he wouldn’t travel to New York for fear of running into Trump, the pair later patched up their relationship
In 2018, Trump asserted that Islamic radicalization had rendered parts of London as ‘no go areas,’ then Prime Minister Theresa May, disagreed
The huge inflatable depicts the US president in a nappy and clutching a mobile phone
Trump’s latest remarks also come has police across the US are removing pro-Palestinian encampments that have been set by students on college campuses across the country.
Those encampments have been the sites of violence, most notably all out brawling seen between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian supporters at UCLA in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Speaking on about the protests, Trump encouraged officials to continue their removals.
‘To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately. Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn,’ he said.
Trump’s remarks at events in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan were being closely watched after he received a $9,000 fine for making public statements about people connected to the criminal case.
In imposing the fine for posts on Trump’s Truth Social account and campaign website, Judge Juan M. Merchan said that if Trump continued to violate his orders, he would ‘impose an incarceratory punishment.’
‘There is no crime. I have a crooked judge. He’s a totally conflicted judge,’ Trump said speaking to supporters at an event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, claiming again that this and other cases against him are led by the White House to undermine his campaign.
Earlier this week, Trump as slapped with a $9,000 fine for breaking a gag order in his case involving Stormy Daniels
Trump pictured with porn star Stormy Daniels in 2006
The former president is trying to achieve a balancing act unprecedented in American history by running for a second term as the presumptive Republican nominee while also fighting felony charges in New York.
Trump frequently goes after Merchan, prosecutors and potential witnesses at his rallies and on social media, attack lines that play well with his supporters but that have potentially put him in further legal jeopardy.
Later at a rally in Freeland, Michigan, he said he was being forced to spend days in a ‘kangaroo court room,’ and claimed without evidence the district attorney was taking orders from the Biden administration.
‘I’ve got to do two of these things a day. You know why? Because I’m in New York all the time with the Biden trial,’ he said. ‘It’s a fake trial. They do it to try and take your powers away, try and take your candidate away.’
Even before the hush money trial got underway on April 15, Trump has held just a handful of public campaign events since becoming his party’s presumptive nominee in March.
The gag order bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his hush money case. Trump is still free to criticize the judge and the district attorney.
Trump insists he is merely exercising his free speech rights, but the offending posts from his Truth Social account and campaign website were taken down. Merchan is weighing other alleged gag-order violations and will hear arguments on Thursday.
Attendees agreed he is being unfairly prosecuted, contending the trial and gag order were designed to distract him.
Later at a rally in Freeland, Michigan, he said he was being forced to spend days in a ‘kangaroo court room,’ and claimed without evidence the district attorney was taking orders from the Biden administration
‘I’ve got to do two of these things a day. You know why? Because I’m in New York all the time with the Biden trial,’ he said. ‘It’s a fake trial. They do it to try and take your powers away, try and take your candidate away’
‘It’s a trial looking for a crime,’ said Ray Hanson, of Hartford. Hanson said he expected Trump’s lawyers would ‘keep him in line’ so he doesn’t violate the gag order, as much as he likely wants to talk about the trial.
Manhattan prosecutors have argued Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by purchasing and then burying negative stories. He has pleaded not guilty.
Trump’s visits to Wisconsin and Michigan mark his second trip to the swing states in just a month.
For the previous rallies, the former president largely focused on immigration, referring to people who are in the U.S. illegally and who are suspected of crimes as ‘animals.’