More than Funny: Trump suggests replacement of London mayor

[wp_ad_camp_1] More than Funny: Trump suggests replacement of London mayor

By Zaib Azkaar Hussain

Karachi

Is it not more than funny that Donald Trump directly suggested replacement of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, by saying “London needs a new mayor.”

The US President’s comments came after five attacks in London in less than 24 hours left three men dead and three others injured. It is said that he has a long-running feud with Sadiq Khan but this feud does not justify an interference ob the part of the US President.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded by saying it was “absolutely awful” Mr Trump was using the “tragedy of people being murdered to attack the mayor”.

President Trump’s tweets mostly follow a long-running feud between the two men. Trump went to say that Mr Khan was “a disaster” and the capital needed a new mayor, while retweeting a post by a rather controversial right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins, about this weekend’s violence in London. He said “Khan is a disaster – will only get worse!” Katie Hopkins had highlighted some recent stabbings in London in the original tweet.

The feud between Mr Khan and Mr Trump dates back to 2016, when the London mayor called the president’s proposed Muslim immigration ban “divisive and outrageous”.

The mayor of London once compared the US president to 20th century fascists during Mr Trump’s recent state visit to the country.

The US president, in response, called the Labour Party politician a “stone cold loser”.

Mayor Sadiq Khan is currently grappling with knife crime in London.

A pair of teenagers were killed in different parts of London within minutes of each other on Friday afternoon, while three men were stabbed in a separate attack in the capital hours later.

On Saturday a man in his thirties died following a stabbing on a street in Tower Hamlets.

At least 14 people have been arrested in connection with the attacks.

Observers say that Trump’s comments could fuel harassment targeting the Khan, who is already under 24-hour police protection because of racist harassment and death threats.

Jacob Davey, the lead on far-right research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said Mr Trump’s attacks on Mr Khan acted as a “nod and a wink” to his extremist supporters.

It may be mentioned that in June this year Just before landing in the UK, Trump described Khan as “a stone cold loser” and “very dumb”.

Khan’s office accused Trump of “childish insults”.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Trump compared Khan to the New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and said he had no plans to meet him during his state visit to London. Interestingly, Khan had told a British daily newspaper he was a “reluctant participant” in his ongoing row with Trump. He said: “We’re not schoolchildren. He’s the president of the United States, so I’m unclear what his beef is with me. He was referring to an interview in which reporters asked Trump’s thoughts on the former American actress, (Rachel Meghan Markle,Duchess of Sussex)  who “wasn’t so nice” to him during the 2016 US presidential election. “I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty,” Trump said.

Trump claimed the quote was manufactured by the “Fake News Media”, even though his remark can be heard during a recording of the interview released by The Sun. During the presidential campaign, Markle called Trump “misogynistic” and “divisive”. The Los Angeles native pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton because “Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want that kind of world” and even threatened to move to Canada if he won. The US president seemed surprised when told he wouldn’t be rubbing elbows with Meghan. “I didn’t know that,” he said. ”I hope she is OK.”

On the other Trump is facing strong opposition in his country. Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Levin on Saturday joined mounting calls by lawmakers to start impeachment hearings for President Donald Trump.

Levin made the comments at the beginning of a town hall at Berkley High School. He becomes the fourth member of the state’s congressional delegation to urge impeachment proceedings.

Levin said his oath to protect and defend the Constitution motivated his call for the House to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s conduct.

“Trump has been violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution each and every day since he took office,” Levin said to a group of his constituents at his former high school. “I have said from the beginning that I feel like Mr. Trump has committed multiple impeachable offenses.

“His intertwining of his business dealings with governance and his profiting off his office are beyond improper. His refusal to share information about his taxes prevents the public from knowing the nature and extent of his conflict of interest.”

Levin mentioning the Mueller report as an example saying, “Volume I is horrifying enough in terms of Mr. Mueller’s inclusion that there was overwhelming Russian interference in the election of 2016 … but really it’s about Volume II which states obstruction of justice.”

Ends

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *