LONDON Mayor-elect, Sadiq Khan, said he fears he would be unable to visit the United States because he is Muslim if Donald Trump were elected president.
“If Donald Trump becomes the president, I’ll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can’t engage with American mayors and swap ideas,” Khan, 45, told Time magazine in an article published this morning.
ABCNews reporterd that Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, first proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in December after the Paris terrorist attacks and San Bernardino, California, mass shooting.
But it is unclear whether Khan would be allowed to travel to the United States if Trump were to be successful in his White House bid and followed through on the idea.
When asked which Muslims would be banned from entering, Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowki told ABC News the day Trump announced his proposal that “the ban applies to everyone.”
But in a subsequent interview that aired Dec. 9, 2015, CNN’s Don Lemon asked Trump whether foreign diplomats would be allowed into the United States.
“Certainly exceptions can be made,” Trump said.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond today to ABC News request for comment on whether Muslim mayors of foreign cities would be among the exceptions.
Either way, Khan said he would visit America before January “in case Donald Trump wins.”
Khan was declared the new mayor of London Saturday, defeating conservative opponent Zac Goldsmith.
