June 3, 2019

Trump Kicks Off UK Visit by Insulting London Mayor, Complaining About TV

“He is a stone cold loser.”

Joe Giddens/ZUMA

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Moments before touching down in London for his first state visit to the United Kingdom, President Donald Trump on Monday attacked London Mayor Sadiq Khan, branding him a “stone cold loser” who reminded him of New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio—the Democratic 2020 candidate and frequent Trump critic.

The battery of insults followed a scathing op-ed Khan published in the Guardian over the weekend that condemned the UK’s decision to hold the formal state visit. In it, he compared Trump to European dictators of the 1930s and ’40s. “Donald Trump is just one of the most egregious examples of a growing global threat,” he wrote before calling attention to the rise of far-right groups around the world. 

“That’s why it’s so un-British to be rolling out the red carpet this week for a formal state visit for a president whose divisive behaviour flies in the face of the ideals America was founded upon—equality, liberty and religious freedom,” Khan continued.

A spokesperson for Khan’s office responded to Trump’s “childish insults” by saying they should be “beneath the president of the United States.”

But attacking the mayor was just the start. Trump then aimed his anger at the television offerings in the UK, lamenting that CNN was the primary US news source available. The president’s favorite network, Fox News, was pulled off the air in 2017 due to lack of viewership. The Rupert Murdoch–owned channel had also been under scrutiny for breaking the UK’s impartiality rules for broadcasters.

Trump’s irritability at the outset of his three-day visit, which will involve tea with the queen and events commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, is likely to be further inflamed by the mass protests—along with the blimp depicting a diaper-wearing Trump—that are expected during his stay in the UK. From there, Trump will travel to Ireland and France.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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