Sadiq Khan blames Donald Trump for increase in racial abuse
It comes as Elon Musk says he will reverse Trump’s Twitter ban if his bid is successful
Last updated 29th May 2022
The Mayor of London has said Donald Trump's US presidency period led to him facing a significant rise in racial abuse.
It comes as Elon Musk announced he will welcome Donald Trump back to Twitter if his bid wins and he becomes the owner of the platform.
But Sadiq Khan, speaking at Stanford University near San Francisco on his US trade mission, said temporary and permanent banning of Mr Trump from Twitter led to a sharp drop in racial abuse.
“Once banned, I received the least racial abuse over five years”
Mr Khan, London’s leader, is also the first Muslim to be elected the mayor of a major Western city.
"During those four years he was president, that led to me having to receive police protection and a lot of racial abuse," Mr Khan has said.
"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.”
Donald Trump first criticised the London mayor in 2016 for his response to the London Bridge terror attacks.
Then during a UK visit in 2019 he called Mr Khan a "stone cold loser" who had failed to manage crime rates in the capital.
Sadiq Khan offers Elon Musk advice on Donald Trump
When appearing at the Stanford Speakers Bureau, Mr Khan used the opportunity to offer Tesla boss Elon Musk some advice about allowing Mr Trump to return to Twitter.
Mr Musk has said he will reverse the current ban on Donald Trump as he plans to make permanent account suspensions a "rare thing", if his £34.5 billion takeover deal is finalised later this year.
"Let's wait and see if Donald Trump has learnt his lesson," Mr Khan told Stanford's students.
"If it's the case that Donald Trump is going to use Twitter responsibly, I think that's all well and good.
"If he breaks the rules, there needs to be consequences and we can't afford a situation where people think social media is where people behave irresponsibly, where you see an increase in not just racism, sexism and misogyny but also division.
"I hope Elon Musk, now he's in charge of Twitter, understands that."
Why was Donald Trump banned from Twitter?
Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter in January 2021 after the social media platform said the then-president had violated its glorification of violence policy.
It came after he repeatedly tweeted his support for the rioters who stormed the US Capitol building on January 6 in protest at Mr Trump's election defeat to Joe Biden.
His account was already temporarily suspended earlier that week for breaching the same rules with more tweets praising those who stormed the Capitol, many of his posts were also hidden behind warning labels for misinformation around the US election.
After he returned, Mr Trump tweeted twice more, saying that he would not be attending the inauguration of Mr Biden as president, Twitter said the refusal to attend was "further confirmation that the election was not legitimate" to his supporters.
Twitter added the tweet referencing the inauguration may also "serve as encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts that the inauguration would be a 'safe' target, as he will not be attending".
After reviewing those tweets, the platform said it was permanently banning Mr Trump "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", and the ban quickly extended to other platforms, including Facebook.
Mr Trump has since launched his own social media platform, Truth Social, in an attempt to reclaim the online megaphone once given to him by Twitter, but with limited success.
Where is Sadiq Khan visiting?
Mr Khan threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Major League Baseball game on Tuesday and met with officials from Google and LinkedIn in Silicon Valley, before he concludes the trip in Los Angeles.
He also visited the US HQ of Plug and Play, the world's largest early-stage investor and a global innovation platform, which has announced its first UK operations in London and Warwickshire.
Palo Alto-based artificial intelligence software provider SambaNova Systems has also announced an expansion in the UK with the opening of its first London office over the coming months.
Mr Khan met with Hillary Clinton, current mayor of New York Eric Adams, and its former leader Michael Bloomberg on Monday at the start of the trip before travelling to San Francisco at about 10.30pm (6.30am BST) for the west coast leg of the tour.
On the next part of his trade mission, the mayor will travel to Los Angeles to discuss export opportunities for London's creative technology businesses
Developing tech companies in London
The mayor was joined on his visit to the Bay Area by 11 founders from some of London's women-led tech companies looking to explore investment and expand in the US market.
Mr Khan said: "I'm delighted to be in Silicon Valley today to bang the drum for even more investment in London by American tech companies.
"London is already the number one destination for American tech companies to expand, showing we are an unrivalled destination for businesses to invest in, I want to invite businesses from across the sector and beyond to set their sights on London."
The visit comes as a London & Partners - a company which promotes the City of London - reveals London has attracted more new international tech investment projects from the US than any other global city in the last five years.
Ruth Porat, SVP and CFO of Google and Alphabet, said: "Google shares the Mayor's belief in the power of technology to drive sustainable economic growth, we look forward to continuing to deepen our connection to the capital in the years ahead."