Donald Trump and Sadiq Khan: How their relationship went from bad to worse to where it is now

Sadiq Khan has felt the wrath of Donald Trump more frequently than any other British politician. While Prime Minister, Theresa May, and Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, have managed to avoid the receiving end of the American President’s frequent and vociferous Twitter tirades, Mr Khan has been rather less fortunate.

The most recent example of President Trump rebuking the London Mayor after the London Bridge terror attacks was by no means an isolated incident. The politician’s feud with each other arguably stems back to a year and a half ago when Mr Trump announced he would ban all Muslims from entering the US.

Back in December 2015, the Republican frontrunner called for all Muslims to be banned from entering the US in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino in California

At the time, a campaign press release said: "Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on”.

Just a few months later, in May 2017, Mr Khan was of course elected as the first Muslim mayor of London. At the time, Mr Trump said he was “happy” London had elected Mr Khan and suggested the Labour politician was likely to be part of the exception to his plans for barring Muslims.

When pressed about how his proposed ban would affect Mr Khan, he said: “There will always be exceptions”.

“I was happy to see that,” the billionaire property developer said of Mr Khan’s election. “I think it’s a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly, that would be very, very good.”

Probed about what he meant, Mr Trump said: “Because I think if he does a great job, it will really - you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing.”

But Mr Khan, who is from Tooting in south London, rejected Mr Trump’s proposal for him to be exempted from the Muslim ban.

"I don't want to be the exception to be allowed to go to America," Mr Khan told the BBC at the time. "It's not about me. It's about my friends, family and others from all around the world."

He also said he was supporting Mr Trump's Democrat rival, Hillary Clinton, saying: “I hope she trounces him”.

In another interview at the time, he also said: “If Donald Trump becomes the President, I’ll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can’t engage with American mayors and swap ideas.”

It was not until the Westminster attack in March of this year that Mr Khan again had friction with the Trump family. After the attack, President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jnr, launched into a scathing attack on Mr Khan, sharing a six-month-old story by The Independent on Twitter which quoted the Mayor of London saying terror attacks were “part and parcel” of living in a global city.

Trump Jnr, an executive of the Trump Organisation, said: “You have to be kidding me?!”

It was not clear whether Trump Jnr read Mr Khan’s actual article before misconstruing the London Mayor’s comments. It also was unclear whether he was aware the six-month-old piece bore no relation to the attack outside the Houses of Parliament and instead centred on Mr Khan’s reaction to a bombing in the Chelsea neighbourhood of New York.

Mr Khan responded by refusing to talk about Trump Jnr’s scornful tweet in two separate interviews, saying: "I've been doing far more important things over the last 24 hours."

But the most recent source of friction between the pair has come in the wake of the recent London Bridge attacks and after Mr Trump wrongly claimed the mayor had said there was “no reason to be alarmed” about the risk of terror attacks in London.

“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’” the former reality TV star said on Twitter. However, the mayor had been referring to the increased police presence in the capital and in no way telling people they should not be alarmed by the atrocities themselves.

After Mr Khan's spokesperson said that the US President had “deliberately” taken his remarks “out of context”, Mr Trump doubled down, tweeting: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement. MSM [Mainstream media] is working hard to sell it!”

The London Mayor has now said the UK should not “roll out the red carpet” for President Trump.

Speaking to Channel 4 News from the vigil held on Monday night for the victims of the attack, Mr Khan said he did not think Mr Trump should be welcomed to the UK for a state visit, arguing he “goes against everything we stand for”.

When asked why he thinks Mr Trump has something against him, Mr Khan replied: “Well look, since Saturday I’ve been working with the police, the emergency and the Government with others to deal with the horrific attack.

“I just haven’t got the time to respond to tweets from Donald Trump.”