Today's Update From The Waugh Zone Is Titled `TRUMP STUMPED'

* Paul Waugh

by Paul Waugh

Can he travel to the US? Yes he Khan. Well, maybe. Donald Trump has executed his very first policy rethink of his entire US Presidential campaign, telling the New York Times that Sadiq Khan could be an “exception” to his proposed Muslim travel ban.

Trump is perhaps realising that his bonkers plan is crashing into something called the real world. Of course, it’s far from certain that he won’t just change his mind again. Soon after his mad idea was unleashed in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, he actually said that he could exempt ‘sporting events’ from the travel restrictions.

Khan has now reacted. And he’s managed to be both dignified and punchy: “This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world.”

But the billionaire’s magnanimity in agreeing that Khan wasn’t after all a security risk because of his Islamic faith poses a problem for the Tories. Michael Fallon - and No10 yesterday - refused to say whether London was ‘safe’ under the new Mayor. So the British Government is currently to the right Trump: not a great place to be.

* US Presidential Aspirant: Donald Trump signals he would not ban new
Labour Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan from travelling to the USA -
an exception to his Muslim ban threat. (Photo Credit: via The Waugh Zone).

Khan had already accused David Cameron, Zac Goldsmith and CCHQ of running a campaign that felt like ‘something out of the Donald Trump playbook’. Cameron and the new Mayor had a short phone conversation yesterday but Sadiq is still demanding the Tories say sorry for their tactics. Among his other words to the PLP last night (see below), the Mayor said: “We can’t let the Tories off the hook just because they lost. The Tory Party owes London an apology.”

Note that Boris’s deputy mayor Stephen Greenhalgh told the Standard yesterday that Londoners had “resoundingly rejected the idea of guilt by association”. “You have got to be judged on what you say personally, not whether you appear at a public meeting with other people whose views you may disagree with vehemently.”

There’s a rumour in Tory circles that Goldsmith will make a public mea culpa sometime soon. But maybe it’s time the PM did one too, before it becomes the big issue of PMQs…

 

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* Paul Waugh is the Executive Editor, Politics, HuffPost UK.



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