'He's pathetic' Donald Trump hits out AGAIN at Sadiq Khan and demands 'extreme vetting'
DONALD Trump has lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan again after branding one of his statements on the London Bridge terror attack a “pathetic excuse.”
The American president picked another fight on the social media platform with Mr Khan just hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was wrong for the American to have criticised him.
Mr Trump tweeted: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM [mainstream media] is working hard to sell it!”
The online feud came after Mr Trump, during a series of tweets following the London Bridge terror assault, misrepresented Mr Khan’s statement that there was “no reason to be alarmed” when seeking to reassure Londoners about an increased police presence.
In round two of his attack, Mr Trump accused Khan -- London's first Muslim mayor -- of offering a "pathetic excuse" for the comments about policing in response to Saturday's attack, which left seven people dead.
Mr Khan had tried to encourage Londoners to be calm in the coming days.
But his words were used by Mr Trump as evidence of the need for "extreme vetting" of Muslims and hardline security measures in the United States, including a "ban" on travelers from Muslim countries.
Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017
Three jihadi attackers launched a vicious attack on London Bridge and in Borough market killing seven people and injuring 48 (21 of whom are still critical) when they drove a van down a road and then jumped out and started stabbing people.
All three attackers were shot dead by police.
The Metropolitan police made at least a dozen arrests in east London on Sunday and carried out further raids on Monday morning.
In the wake of Mr Trump's statements, Mr Khan’s spokesman fired back that the mayor had “more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed” tweet, before Mr Khan later suggested he does not regard Mr Trump’s planned state visit as welcome.
However, the US president refused to back down and has continued to criticise Mr Khan.
The president’s initial criticism of Mr Khan was widely said to be a clear misinterpretation of some of the mayor’s comments in the wake of the atrocity.
Speaking on the BBC, Mr Khan made clear that he was advising people not to be concerned by the presence of additional armed police officers on the streets of the capital in the days to come, and not playing down anxieties about the attack itself.
Dashcam footage reveals trail of devastation on London Bridge
And while Mrs May had initially dodged questions about Mr Trump by choosing to praise Mr Khan’s response. She stopped short of directly criticising the US president.
Asked if Mr Trump was wrong in his assessment of the London mayor, the Prime Minister told reporters: “I think Sadiq Khan is doing a good job and it’s wrong to say anything else – he’s doing a good job.”
Mrs May, taking questions after a central London election campaign speech, was earlier asked if she wanted a period of silence from Mr Trump.
She replied: “I’m very clear that Sadiq is doing a good job as mayor of London.
"We’re working with him, working together and that’s important – central government and the London mayoralty and his officials working together to ensure we are responding to the attack and looking, as I said earlier, at the work that the police is doing to give the public extra protection and extra reassurance. We want people to go about their business.”
On what Mr Trump would have to say for her to criticise him, the PM said: “I’ve been very clear, I’ve been very happy to say when I think President Trump is wrong – to have taken America out of the climate change agreement, the Paris agreement.
“The United Kingdom stays in it and we believe it’s an important international agreement.
“So I’m not afraid to say when I think President Trump is getting things wrong.