Sadiq Khan: Trump's 'protectionist, nativist and unilateralist plans pose problems for London, UK and world'

Donald Trump’s “protectionist, nativist, and unilateralist” policies pose problems for London, Britain and the world, Sadiq Khan is warning.

The London Mayor made the blunt assessment as the US president elect is threatening to impose tariffs on good imported into America of 10 to 20 per cent, and 60 per cent from China.

He is also signalling that he may scale back US support for Ukraine by claiming he could end Vladimir Putin’s war in the country within a day, which would inevitably mean Kyiv giving up territory.

Mr Khan has clashed regularly with Trump, who will be the first US president who is a convicted criminal.

But the London Mayor is seeking to strike a balanced approach to Trump’s second term in office which starts in January, and congratulated him on winning the election against Democrat Kamala Harris.

“Firstly it’s really important I say this because I abide by the rules of the game,” he told LBC Radio.

“Donald Trump has won the election; he’s going to be the president in January. And I wish him well, I congratulate him on winning the election.

“It's really important that we put out a hand of friendship to President-elect Trump

“But clearly, we know from his record when he was president between 2016 and 2020 and also some of the things he’s campaigned on, there are anxieties that Londoners have, which my job as the mayor is to articulate those.”

He added further: “I think the three things that even Donald Trump supporters would agree with is his policies are protectionist, nativist, and unilateralist.

“I think that poses problems not just for our great country and the world but also for London.”

Earlier this week, Mr Khan described Trump’s policies as “sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic and racist” and he previously slammed the president’s pledge in his first term to ban people from certain Muslim countries from travelling to the US, describing the policy as “ignorant”.

The Republican property tycoon described the London Mayor as “a stone-cold loser” and “very dumb”.

Mr Khan’s latest comments came as Trump was pressing ahead with a series of controversial selections in Washington for top jobs in his new administration, which will need to be approved by the Senate.

He has picked vaccine sceptic and former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr as his Health Secretary.

While his choice of Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State is expected to have somewhat broad support, including from Democrats, others like Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence and Pete Hegseth as Defence Secretary are raising more scrutiny.

The choice of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, a fierce Trump loyalist who talks about the wholesale upheaval of the Justice Department, is all the more troubling for senators because of a House ethics probe over alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.

He denies the allegations but submitted his resignation from Congress as soon as he was nominated, effectively shutting down the probe.