WASHINGTON — President Trump and his team renewed a trans-Atlantic feud with the mayor of London on Sunday, portraying him as soft on terrorism a day after seven people were killed and dozens more wounded in the latest attack in the British capital.
Trump assailed Mayor Sadiq Khan by mischaracterizing his comments after the attack.
After condemning the “cowardly terrorists,’’ Khan told Londoners not “to be alarmed’’ by seeing more police on the streets. Trump presented it as if Khan had meant they should not be alarmed by terrorism. The mayor’s office fired back, calling Trump “ill informed.’’
The highly charged exchange as Britain grappled once again with the threat of terrorism at home reflected the tensions between Trump and the United States’ traditional allies in Europe.
Trump returned home a little more than a week ago after meetings in Belgium and Italy that put on display disputes over trade and the role of NATO, then followed up by pulling the United States out of the Paris climate change accord, over the objections of European leaders.
The friction has been especially acute for more than a year between Trump and Khan, the first Muslim to serve as mayor of a major Western European capital.
During last year’s presidential contest, Khan criticized Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States and endorsed Hillary Clinton, prompting an exchange with Trump’s campaign. Trump’s son Donald Jr. criticized Khan as recently as March.
The president’s initial reaction to the Saturday night attack in London was to offer traditional messages of support and solidarity.
By Sunday morning, however, he had trained his scorn on Khan.
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’’’ Trump wrote on Twitter.
Either Trump misunderstood what Khan had said or distorted it. During an interview shown on the BBC, the mayor said he was “appalled and furious that these cowardly terrorists would target’’ innocent civilians and vowed that “we will never let them win, nor will we allow them to cower our city.’’
He went on to say that residents should not worry as they encounter more police officers patrolling the streets.
“Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days,’’ Khan said. “No reason to be alarmed. One of the things, the police, all of us need to do, is make sure we’re as safe as we possibly can be.’’
“I’m reassured that we are one of the safest global cities in the world, if not the safest global city in the world, but we always evolve and review ways to make sure that we remain as safe as we possibly can,’’ he said.
Trump at first responded to the London attack with similar expressions of an ally and called Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain on Saturday night to offer condolences.
A statement from the White House said the president had “praised the heroic response of police and other first responders and offered the full support of the United States government in investigating and bringing those responsible for these heinous acts to justice.’’
But as the hours passed and Saturday night turned into Sunday morning, Trump pivoted to cite the attack to build support for his proposed travel ban on visitors from select Muslim-majority countries, which has been blocked by the courts.
He also argued that gun control was pointless because terrorists in this case used other weapons.
“We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!’’ he wrote in one message.
“We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people,’’ he wrote in another. “If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.’’
“Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now?’’ he added Sunday morning. “That’s because they used knives and a truck!’’
Gun control advocates quickly noted that the casualty toll might have been much higher had the attackers had access to high-powered firearms. Britain has some of the world’s strictest regulations on private gun ownership.
Khan’s office dismissed the president’s post about him, saying the mayor was too busy to reply.
“He has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police — including armed officers — on the streets,’’ a spokesman for the mayor said.
Critics of Trump in Britain and the United States faulted him for his acrimonious response to the Saturday assault. “I don’t think that a major terrorist attack like this is the time to be divisive and to criticize a mayor who’s trying to organize his city’s response to this attack,’’ former Vice President Al Gore said on CNN’s “State of the Union’’ on Sunday.
But the White House showed no signs of backing down, and a top aide amplified the attack shortly afterward.
Dan Scavino, the president’s director of social media, posted a message referring to Khan’s criticism of Trump a year ago for his “ignorant view of Muslims.’’
Keep calm and carry on, Brits in Boston say, B1.
