President Donald Trump attacked London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan on Twitter, taking his words out of context to falsely accuse him of saying there is “no reason to be alarmed” about the June 4 terror attack on the London Bridge. Khan’s full quote referred to the “increased police presence” in the area following the attack, not to the attack itself, and Trump’s tweet follows a year’s worth of right-wing media criticism of London’s first Muslim mayor.
On June 4, Trump tweeted that Khan said that “there is ‘no reason to be alarmed,’” adding the following daythat Khan “had to think fast” to come up with his “pathetic excuse” for the statement. He also accused the media of “working hard to sell it!” As explained by CNBC, Khan’s full quote was, “Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There’s no reason to be alarmed.” In addition, a spokesperson for Khan said he “has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police — including armed officers — on the streets.”
Trump’s latest attacks on Khan did not occur in a vacuum. Right-wing media figures have attacked the London mayor since his election in 2016, and Trump made a series of disparaging comments about Khan during the 2016 U.S. election, including challenging him to an “I.Q. test,” after Khan criticized Trump’s rhetoric on Islam as “ignorant.” Khan also declined Trump’s proffered exemption from his proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
After Khan’s historic victory as the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital and during a rift with Trump, Fox’s Dana Perino praised Khan by saying he’s “not like ISIS.” In June 2016, former Fox host Bill O’Reilly saidthere is a “huge Muslim component in England,” including London’s “Muslim mayor,” that contributed to the country’s decision to leave the European Union, saying “I think that the British people have had it, and they fear terrorism.” After four people died in an attack at the British Houses of Parliament in March, Fox prime-time host Tucker Carlson took comments Khan made in September out of context, saying that Khan said that “terror attacks are, quote, ‘part and parcel of living in a big city.’ In other words, it’s just part of the deal.” At that same time, Donald Trump Jr. faced backlash for criticizing Khan using the same quote. In reality, Khan was referring to major cities needing to be prepared for terror attacks.
In May 2016, Breitbart attacked the Pope for applauding Khan’s election and saying that the election reflected Europe’s need “to rediscover its capacity to integrate.” Breitbart has posted multiple pieces of content disparaging Khan. Anti-Muslim extremist Pamela Geller called Khan “London’s new jihad mayor” in a May 2016 tweet, and current Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, who wrote for Breitbart at the time, appeared on Fox after Khan’s election and call him “an apologist for the bad guys. Not good.”
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