UK: Johnson rules out cancelling Trump's state visit

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

Britain’s foreign secretary on Monday ruled out cancelling a state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump after Trump’s Twitter attack on Sadiq Khan, London’s Muslim mayor.

Boris Johnson said Khan had been “entirely right” in his exchange with Trump in the wake of a weekend terrorist attack in London which killed seven people, but added there was no reason to cancel the state visit, which Prime Minister Theresa May invited Trump to during her U.S. visit in January.

After the attack, Trump criticized Khan's tweet saying there is “no reason to be alarmed” over the increased police presence in London, erroneously suggesting Khan had meant there was no reason for alarm about terrorism itself.

Trump later accused Khan of offering a “pathetic excuse” for his comments.

Khan “has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police -- including armed officers -- on the streets,” a spokesman for the mayor said.

On Monday, Khan said, “I don’t think we should roll out the red carpet to the president of the U.S.A. in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for.”