LONDON – Presidential candidate Donald Trump says he may have a poor relationship with British Prime Minister David Cameron in light of his criticism of Trump’s call for all Muslims to be temporarily banned from entering the United States.
Trump’s comments, broadcast Monday on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain,” are certain to cause unease in Britain, where America is seen as the country’s closest ally. Cameron has refused to retract comments describing the presumptive Republican nominee’s proposed Muslim ban as “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
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“It looks like we are not going to have a very good relationship,” Trump said in the interview conducted in New York. “Who knows, I hope to have a good relationship with him but he’s not willing to address the problem either.”
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In the interview conducted Saturday, Trump also describes London’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, as “rude” for calling him ignorant. The real estate tycoon said he would “remember” the mayor’s hostile reaction to the idea that Khan, a Muslim, would be given an exception to the temporary ban.
“He doesn’t know me, hasn’t met me, doesn’t know what I’m all about. I think they were very rude statements and, frankly, tell him I will remember those statements,” Trump said. “They are very nasty statements.”
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Trump denied he was “at war” with Khan.
“I just think it’s very rude of him. In fact it’s the opposite,” he said. “I wished him well when I heard he won, he’s a Muslim, I think it’s ignorant for him to say that.”
Khan’s office responded with outrage to the remarks and said American voters will reject Trump’s views.
“Sadiq has spent his whole life fighting extremism, but Trump’s remarks make that fight much harder for us all – it plays straight into the extremists’ hands and makes both our countries less safe,” his office said in a statement.