Donald Trump reignited his feud with London Mayor Sadiq Khan during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2025. He branded Khan a “terrible, terrible mayor” and falsely claimed that London “wants to go to Sharia law.” The remarks drew sharp criticism in the UK. Khan responded that Trump had shown himself to be “racist, sexist, misogynistic, and Islamophobic.”

A Feud Nearly a Decade Long

The clash was not new. Trump has spent years using Khan as a political target, linking him to themes of terrorism, immigration, and urban decline.

Trump’s fixation on Sadiq Khan dates back almost a decade. In December 2015, as he defended his proposed Muslim travel ban, Trump cited a Daily Mail article to claim London police secretly agreed with him — an indirect jab at Khan, then a rising mayoral candidate. The following year, in September 2016, he mocked Khan’s intelligence during a campaign rally and even challenged him to an IQ test.

After the Westminster Bridge attack in March 2017, Trump’s son publicly criticized Khan’s remarks about terrorism being “part and parcel of life in big cities,” and Trump himself helped amplify the narrative. Only months later, after the London Bridge attack in June, Trump tweeted that Khan had offered a “pathetic excuse” in response to an increased police presence. That same week, he warned Khan that he had a “long memory” after the mayor called his views on Islam “ignorant.”

The feud deepened during Trump’s first UK state visit in June 2019. From his X account, he branded Khan a “stone cold loser” and “a disaster,” saying London needed a new mayor “ASAP.” Just a month later, he tweeted again that with “the incompetent Mayor of London, you will never have safe streets.” By September of that year, he mocked Khan for criticizing his golf game, again calling him incompetent and dismissive.

After several quiet years, the attacks reignited in 2025. During his second UK state visit that September, Trump told reporters he had personally asked that Sadiq Khan be barred from the King’s state banquet. He also demanded that Khan not attend the royal dinner held in his honor, dismissing the mayor as “one of the worst mayors in the world.”

The UNGA remarks capped a years-long pattern: Trump repeatedly framed Khan as weak on crime and hostile to U.S. interests.

Trump’s claim about Sharia law in London is false. Sharia councils have existed in the UK since the 1980s. However, they operate only in family and religious matters, such as marriage or divorce. They have no official legal or constitutional authority. A 2019 UK government report confirmed their rulings are not legally binding, and London operates under the same secular laws as the rest of the country. By invoking Sharia, Trump recycled an Islamophobic trope often used to smear Muslim communities.

Khan Pushes Back

Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, dismissed Trump’s attacks as divisive. “People are wondering what it is about this Muslim mayor who leads a multicultural, progressive city that means I live rent-free inside Donald Trump’s head,” he said.

Trump’s comments go beyond a personal feud. By tying Khan to Sharia law, he inflamed Islamophobic narratives on a global stage. Meanwhile, London thrives: TripAdvisor named it the world’s top travel destination for 2025, a reality that undercuts Trump’s bleak portrait.

Khan’s rebuttal reframed the fight: Trump’s rhetoric is not about London’s safety, but about weaponizing fear for political gain.

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