London Mayor Sadiq Khan blames Trump for sharp rise in abuse

Since being elected mayor of London in 2016, Sadiq Khan claims he has received at least 233,000 “explicitly racist or racialized social media communications.”

In a speech to Stanford University students in California, Mr. Khan blamed Donald Trump’s election as US president for a 1,892 percent increase in abuse.

The conflict began in 2017 when Mr. Trump chastised the mayor for his response to the terror assaults on London Bridge.

“He’s not my greatest fan,” Mr. Khan told the Silicon Valley crowd.

Mr. Khan was elected mayor of London in May 2016, six months before Donald Trump was elected president.

“During those four years he was president, that led to me having to receive police protection and a lot of racial abuse,” Mr. Khan said on Tuesday.

“In the last year of him being president, once he was banned from Twitter, I received the least racial abuse of any time over five years.

“On the one hand, social media – Facebook Twitter – great. On the other hand, that’s the consequence of lack of control and lack of regulation.”

According to the mayor’s office, racist abuse directed toward Mr. Khan increased by 1,892 percent in 2016, before climbing by 94 percent in 2017.

According to Sadiq Khan’s administration, abuse decreased by 35% in 2018, increased by 59% in 2019, will decrease by 75% in 2020, and will decrease by 40% in 2021, following Mr. Trump’s permanent suspension from Twitter and his departure from office.

The mayor is touring the country in order to “beat the drum for London” and stimulate investment and tourists.

During the California segment of his visit, Obama spoke with technology and business executives from Google and LinkedIn.

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