London mayor calls Trump “poster boy for far-right acivists”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Tuesday Donald Trump was a poster boy for far-right activists all over the world, continuing a long-running spat with the U.S. President.

The London mayor claimed the US president’s behaviour was normalising and mainstreaming the abhorrent views of white supremacists and other extremists.

“Surely we should be saying ‘listen, you know, you do realise you’re a poster-boy for the far-right movement around the world,” he told Sky News in an interview, citing Trump’s policies on Muslims and immigration centres.

The war of words was sparked when Khan described the US president over the weekend as “just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat” and compared the language he had used to that of the “fascists of the 20th century”.

Trump hit back by mocking the height of the London mayor and calling him a “stone cold loser”.

Asked about his spat with the president, Khan referred to Trump’s ban on Muslims entering the US.

He said: “Donald Trump basically is the poster boy for the far right movement around the world.

“He and I first came into interaction when he decided he was going to ban Muslims from coming into the UK, apart from me because I’m the mayor of London.

“Banning Muslims from going to USA is a bad policy, it’s not the sort of America those of us who love America know.

“We have seen a number of policies which do cause concern to those of us in London, UK, Europe. The ripples of what is said by the president of the USA are felt all around the world.

“A number of things he has said and done is causing problems, people in France, Hungary, Italy, the UK ... who are having their views which are abhorrent normalised and mainstreamed because some of the things Donald Trump has done.”

Khan said that progress in LGBT+ rights, gender equality and other policies was now in danger of “going backwards”.

He also suggested that Trump was damaging the reputation of the US. He said: “Many of the things that are being said and done by Donald Trump cause huge offence and I’m afraid that the reputation of America isn’t as great as it has been in the past because of the president.”