Sadiq Khan brands Donald Trump a bully and vows to stand up to his ‘hatred and bile’

The mayor of London has branded Donald Trump a “bully” for his long-running campaign against him just weeks after the US President called him “horrible, vicious, disgusting”.

Sir Sadiq Khan also accused Mr Trump of hurling “bile” at the UK, after he claimed the Muslim politician was successful because there were “so many” immigrants in the city.

Sir Sadiq, who also claimed President Trump was “obsessed” with him, said that he learned when he was nine years old that “the best way to deal with a bully, whether it’s in the playground or in the White House, is to stand up to them. You don’t get more respect from a bully by cowering”.

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“And when somebody attacks my city, our citizens, our values, our way of life — when somebody makes certain generalisations about the followers of one faith — I think it’s incumbent to stand up to them,” he said in an interview with Politico.

He also joked that he thought Mr Trump would switch his focus to Zohran Mamdani when he was elected mayor of New York.

In the run-up to the vote, Mr Trump branded him a “communist” while Mr Mamdani suggested the president was a fascist.

Yet in an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office, the two men appeared to laugh off the insults and develop a form of rapport.

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Sir Sadiq joked: “When you look at the animus, hatred and bile coming from President Trump towards me. I sort of assumed when Zohran was elected, President Trump would be two-timing me and spending time targeting Zohran.”

But he suggested that their first meeting was a form of “tactical diplomacy” rather than a genuine meeting of minds.

When it came to Trump’s criticism of immigration in the UK, he described his comments as “bile not just towards me, but.. sweeping generalisations about the country in terms of the immigration policy and how elections are fought and won.”

He added: “I genuinely think he’s obsessed. And there have been many periods where he’s said horrible things and I’ve not responded because I’m just too busy to get involved in tittle-tattle, and this pathetic name-calling.”

Last month, Mr Trumpreignited his long-running feud with Sir Sadiq, saying of the city’s first Muslim mayor, whose parents came from Pakistan: “He gets elected because so many people have come in [to the UK]. They vote for him now.”

He also called him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor” and said he has done a “terrible job”.

With Labour on course to suffer heavy losses in elections in Wales, Scotland and English councils in May, Sir Sadiq suggested his party could learn from his success in London, saying: “I’m quite happy to lead, and they follow.”

But he insisted he did not want to become Labour leader, amid increasing speculation over Keir Starmer’s future. “No, no, no, no. I’ve no intentions, no plans, nor would I want to be the leader of the Labour Party or indeed the prime minister,” he said.