Trump rants London is ‘unrecognisable’ and has ‘opened its door to jihad’ during wild rally speech

Donald Trump has claimed that London is “unrecognisable” because it has “opened its doors to jihad” in a bizarre rally speech.

The former president ranted about pro-Palestine college protests and the idea of letting Palestinian refugees into the country from war-torn Gaza, before declaring that he would “never let” America become unrecognisable as he claims London and Paris have become.

“We’ve seen what happened when Europe opened their doors to jihad,” he told his supporters at the event. “Look at Paris, look at London – they’re no longer recognisable,” he said offering no evidence whatsover for his wild statements.

His remarks came while speaking at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday afternoon while on a break from court proceedings for his criminal hush money trial in New York.

“And I’m going get myself into a lot of trouble with the folks in Paris and the folks in London, but you know what, that’s the fact,” Trump continued. “They are no longer recognisable, and we can’t let that happen to our country.”

“We have incredible culture, tradition – nothing wrong with their culture, their tradition – we can’t let that happen here, and I’ll never let it happen to the United States of America.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and his wife Saadiya arrive with their dog Luna to cast their vote in the London mayoral election on Thursday (Getty Images)

The former president and current London mayor Sadiq Khan have often criticised each other over the years, fuelled at one point by Mr Khan’s office giving anti-Trump activists permission to fly a blimp of Trump as a crying baby in a nappy during a protest in 2018. During Trump’s state visit to the UK that year, he said that Mr Khan had “done a very bad job on terrorism”.

Responding to Trump’s latest comments Mr Khan told the Daily Mail as voting in London’s mayoral election took place on Thursday that “today is an opportunity to show Donald Trump… that London will always choose hope over fear and unity over division.”

Trump brought up the European cities at his rally after he took aim at the administration of President Joe Biden for reportedly weighing up measures they could possibly take to welcome Palestinians who already have relatives living in the United States into the country.

Donald Trump speaks to supporter at a Wisconsin MAGA rally on Wednesday, telling the crowd London and Paris have ‘opened their doors to jihad’ (Getty Images)

“Your towns and villages will now be accepting people from Gaza and various other places,” Trump said, with the crowd responding with a chorus of boos. “Under no circumstances shall we bring thousands of refugees.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that the administration is “constantly evaluating policy proposals” to try and support Palestinians who have American citizen family members, but have no further details on how the procedures may work.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed amid the war in Gaza, according to health officials in the besiged strip, after Israel launched a bombing campaign and ground assaults in the wake of the brutal Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October. Around 1,200 people were killed in that attack, with another 250 people taken hostage.

The situation in Gaza has sparked pro-Palestine protests on college campuses across the US. Trump also touched on the college demonstrations, referring to protestors as “raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers” and lashed out at MrBiden for not stepping in.

“To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately,” he said in Wisconsin.

“Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn.”

It is thought that more than 1,000 people have been arrested across US universities.

The Independent stands for many things, often uniquely so. It stands independent of political party allegiance, and makes its own mind up on the issues of the day. The Independent has always been committed to challenge and debate. It launched in 1986 to create a new voice and in that time has run campaigns for issues ranging from the legalisation of marijuana to the Final Say Brexit petition.