US President Donald Trump reignited his long-standing feud with London Mayor Sadiq Khan during his address at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, making unverified claims that the British capital aims to “go to sharia law.”
Sharia law, derived from the Quran and Hadith, governs aspects of personal and public life in some Muslim-majority countries, but there is no evidence that London or its mayor has sought to adopt it.
“I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed,” Trump said in his speech. “Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”
Trump also criticized European immigration and energy policies, calling them “suicidal” and warning that they “will be the death of Western Europe if something isn’t done immediately.” He accused the UN of “funding an assault on Western countries and their borders” and added, “Europe is in serious trouble. They have been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before.”
Trump at the UN:
“I look at London where you have a terrible mayor… Now they want to go to Sharia law.”
This is entirely false. London Mayor Sadiq Khan is politically moderate and has never ever called for Sharia law.
This is Islamophobic propaghanda and bigotry. pic.twitter.com/j5ZKkJ2uFA
— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) September 23, 2025
Khan and British Leaders Push Back
Khan’s office quickly condemned Trump’s remarks as “appalling and bigoted.” A spokesperson said, “London is the greatest city in the world, safer than major US cities, and we’re delighted to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here.”
Labour MP Wes Streeting also defended the mayor, tweeting: “Sadiq Khan is not trying to impose Sharia law on London. This is a mayor who marches with Pride, stands up for differences of background and opinion, and is focused on improving our transport, air, streets, safety, choices, and chances.”
The Muslim Council of Britain went further, saying it prayed for Trump’s “health and wellbeing as his hallucinations seem to be getting worse by the day,” according to reports.
A Decade-Long Spat
Tuesday’s comments are the latest salvo in a feud stretching back nearly a decade. In 2015, Khan condemned then-presidential candidate Trump after he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” following a terrorist attack in California. Since then, the two have repeatedly clashed, with Khan criticizing Trump’s immigration policies and rhetoric, and Trump responding with personal attacks.
During his recent state visit to the UK, Trump said he personally requested that Khan not be invited to a royal banquet at Windsor Castle, calling him “among the worst mayors in the world” and criticizing London’s crime levels, which he described as “through the roof,” alongside the city’s “dirt” and “filth.”
While overall crime in London has risen 31.5% over the past decade, violent crime increased by 40%, according to UK Office for National Statistics data. Yet the Metropolitan Police report that London’s homicide rate in 2024 was 11.8 per million people, lower than in several major US cities, including Washington, D.C. Khan has been mayor since May 2016.
Trump’s UN speech framed these comments within a wider critique of European policies on immigration and energy. While his words drew sharp pushback in the UK, they also highlight the ongoing cultural and political tensions between Trump and Khan, whose differing approaches to leadership, immigration, and public safety remain a frequent flashpoint in international discourse.
