London Mayor Sadiq Khan said last week that he didn’t believe President Donald Trump was worthy of a state banquet hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. It turns out, though, he won’t have to suffer through seeing Trump honored by the royal family.
Queen Elizabeth has declined to invite Khan to Trump’s state dinner, snubbing London’s top administrator, apparently over fears he’ll be inappropriately aggressive toward the American leader, Express.co.uk reports.
The Daily Wire’s Paul Bois reported on Saturday that Khan has been an outspoken critic of Queen Elizabeth’s decision to host Trump for an official state visit, even going so far as to say that Trump doesn’t deserve the honor, despite being president of the United States.
“Of course we should have a close relationship with the president of the United States, but we shouldn’t be rolling out the red carpet; we shouldn’t have a state banquet,” Khan told a radio program last week. “History tells us only two presidents have had a state visit. I think President Trump is certainly not in the same class as those two.”
Sunday, the mayor’s office admitted that he was not asked to join in the celebration, meant not just to commemorate Trump’s first official visit to the United Kingdom, but also to memorialize the “special relationship” forged between the two nations during the Second World War II on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
“The mayor has not been invited to the state banquet,” Khan’s spokesperson told media.
Invitations were instead sent to Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, both of whom declined to attend the banquet. Cable told media that his RSVP should be considered a “boycott.”
“We should not be beguiled by pomp and circumstance into hobnobbing with a man who is on record as a misogynist and a racist,” Cable said.
There is no love lost between Khan and Trump; the pair have been at odds before Trump was even elected in 2016. Khan has repeatedly criticized Trump over his treatment of women and minorities, and lashed out at Trump over his domestic policies, particularly Trump’s attitude toward Islam. Khan is Muslim and is the first Muslim mayor of London.
Trump has, in turn, critiqued Khan over his “knife control” policies, meant to keep stabbings and random knifings down in London’s city center, and was especially perturbed last year when Khan approved a ridiculous “Baby Trump” balloon to fly over downtown London during the president’s last visit.
It is not known whether “Baby Trump,” which has been on something of a “tour” of protests in the United States, will reappear as part of the protests expected to mark the president’s second trip to the U.K. and his first official state visit, but at least Khan won’t get the opportunity to sneak Baby Trump into dinner in his suit pocket.
President Trump is due to arrive in the United Kingdom on June 4 or 5, and he will attend not just a state banquet hosted by the Queen and other members of the British royal family at Buckingham Palace, but a host of other meetings with leaders of the U.K.’s conservative party. He will also participate in several events in the U.K. commemorating the role the British military played in hosting, training, and partnering with the American military ahead of the D-Day landings, June 6, 1944.
The president will then travel to France to participate in the official D-Day 75 celebration on Omaha Beach in Normandy.