Britons with living memories of past American presidents have been startled by Trump’s attack on the mayor of London at a time when the city was “reeling” — to quote a New York Times headline that was widely, and deservedly, pilloried. The morally upright Carter, the avuncular Reagan, the courtly George H.W. Bush, the folksy Clinton, the gregarious George W. Bush, the eloquent Obama — all of them, to be sure, would have responded to Britain’s grief with vigorous words of support and offers of assistance. They would have invoked the special relationship. [...]
Bafflement quickly gave way to anger as Trump showed no signs of remorse. It was left to Lewis Lukens, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in London — Trump has yet to put an ambassador in place — to soothe inflamed British public opinion. “I commend the strong leadership of the mayor of London as he leads the city forward after this heinous attack,” he tweeted. The tweet was sent from @USAInUK, the embassy’s Twitter account, but Lukens bravely added his own signature to the text. [...]
Khan troubles Trump spiritually. He cannot comprehend him as a political type. Khan is a devout Muslim who has repeatedly spoken out against radical Islam. He is a bus driver’s son who is the precise example of the integrated Muslim that many in the West clamor for in this age of Islamism and religious separatists. He is the mayor of the world’s most important city (alongside New York) and his popularity has soared after his brushes with Trump, whose inability to digest the existence of a mainstream Muslim politician in Britain is a result of his instinctive dismissal of Muslims as a people of civic consequence.
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