New London mayor comes out swinging – at Trump

I don’t want exemption from ‘ignorant’ Trump: Sadiq Khan

… from  Press TV,  Tehran

[ Editor’s Note: Trump’s “slow ball over the center of the plate” comment on a total ban of Muslims entering the US was a gift from heaven for London’s new mayor to spin the dig back around.

The Donald’s “making an exception for Khan” response will go down on the growing list of Trump’s off the cuff remarks made when no comment would have served him better.

But Khan was taking a cheap shot at Trump, as his comments about Khan winning were balanced, logical and maybe even sincere. Trump was not poisoning the well between them. But that said, this little media dust up between a US presidential candidate and a newly-elected London mayor is a tempest in a tea pot.

The real story is how could Khan have beaten a gold-plated insider, Jewish Lobby conservative to become mayor of one of the most powerful, corrupt financial city centers on the planet, one of the crown jewels for wanting to make sure an elitist insider was guarding the foxes to make sure the chickens had no chance whatsoever.

I am still looking for an in-depth report on how Khan and his supporters pulled this off. That one is not already up indicates that everybody was caught by surprise by his win, and don’t really know how it happened. This is a political shift of tectonic-plate dimensions if there is a formula for how it was done, versus being just a wild card draw springing from the charisma of the new mayor.

I can assure you, a lot of financial and traditional Intel organizations have called for internal reports on how having Khan running London could affect their operations. This is going to be an interesting story, and one coming just before Britain’s Brexit vote next month. Could Khan’s victory be followed by another tectonic shift with a British vote to leave the EU? …Jim W. Dean ]

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– First published  …  May 11,  2016 –

Sadiq Khan, the new mayor of London, has rejected “ignorant” US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s offer that he could be an exception to his proposed ban on all Muslims entering the United States.

Khan said on Tuesday that Trump’s call to prevent Muslims from travelling to the US directly affected the people closest to him, and added that offering an exception for him was not the answer, The Guardian reported.

“This isn’t just about me – it’s about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world,” said Khan, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, who scored a resounding victory over his billionaire Conservative rival last week.

“Donald Trump’s ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe – it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists,” Khan said. Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam – London has proved him wrong,” he added.

Trump, the US Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, told the New York Times on Monday that he was “happy” to see Khan elected, and wished him well.

“There will always be exceptions,” the Times quoted the real estate mogul as saying in response to a question about whether Khan was an exception to his ban on Muslims.

Commenting on the Labour Party candidate’s victory, Trump said,

“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. Because I think if he does a great job, it will really — you lead by example, always lead by example.”

Trump’s campaign has been marred by his disparaging remarks against minorities in the US. His comments include calling for a total ban on Muslims from coming to America and forced deportation of Mexican migrants.

Trump’s proposal has been condemned by Muslim and human rights groups as well as his Democratic rivals and many of his Republican presidential opponents who describe the proposal as divisive, counterproductive and contrary to American values.

In Britain, Khan has compared Trump’s racially charged campaign to the “disgusting and slimy” tactics of his Jewish opponent Zac Goldsmith.

“They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other – something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook,” he told the Observer this weekend.

Goldsmith had accused Khan of “pandering to extremists” and providing them “oxygen.”

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Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus.  He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.  He now writes and posts periodically for VT.

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