Sadiq Khan has dismissed Donald Trump’s latest attack as a “silly crush”, saying he is living “rent-free inside his head” – hours after the White House asked Congress for $87.6bn (£66.5bn) largely to fund the war in Iran.
The mayor of London was responding to the US president calling him “grossly incompetent, and a bad person” and a “horrible representative for the UK” during an Oval Office press conference. “Another day, another example of President Trump’s obsession with me,” Khan told Metro. “He’s clearly got a man crush on me.”
“Sadiq Khan says Trump has a 'man crush' on him as the US president asks Congress for $87.6bn for the Iran war.”
The exchange came on the same day that Trump’s formal request for war funding landed on the desk of House Speaker Mike Johnson. The bulk – $67bn – is for the Department of Defence, including $21bn for munitions, $17.3bn for operational costs and $12.1bn for classified programmes. A further $300m is earmarked to bolster security at embassies in the Middle East and South Asia after some came under attack earlier in the conflict.
The request also includes $11bn for US farmers and $1.4bn to tackle the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. The White House Office of Management and Budget letter notes that the Pentagon needs to “rebuild stocks” after its military strikes, even as a ceasefire currently holds between Washington and Tehran.
But the proposal faces an uphill battle in Congress. The war is unpopular with voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, and Trump has clashed with members of his own Republican Party. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was one of a handful of Republicans who defied the president on Tuesday by voting for a measure demanding that he halt the war or seek congressional approval. Cassidy fell back in line after an angry exchange with Trump on Wednesday and after receiving assurances from administration officials.
A peace plan was agreed last week between Trump and Iran, but dissident Republicans have voiced scepticism. The lunch meeting between the president and senators was described as tense, with Trump abruptly calling off a signing ceremony for a housing bill that had bipartisan support.
Khan’s own feud with Trump stretches back years. It began in 2015 when the then-Labour mayoral candidate condemned Trump’s suggestion that Muslims should be banned from travelling to the US. After Khan’s election in 2016, he called Trump’s views on Islam “ignorant”, prompting Trump to challenge him to an IQ test. The row escalated after the 2017 London Bridge terror attack, when Trump claimed Khan had said there was “no reason to be alarmed” – a misquote of the mayor’s actual statement that the public should not be alarmed by an increased police presence.
Khan made his latest comments as he launched London’s first-ever heat plan, “Heat Ready London”, in Islington. The plan sets out objectives including protecting Londoners from the health impacts of rising temperatures and prioritising vulnerable people in high-risk areas. “Rising temperatures are no longer a future threat – they are becoming a growing reality for Londoners,” he said. The announcement came just after London won the Lee Kuan Yew Prize, a prestigious urban planning award, in Singapore.