Donald Trump has claimed a London hospital “is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds”.
Speaking at a National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting, the president promised to protect US gun rights, telling the Dallas conference they were currently “under siege”.
Comparing the US to the UK, he said a top hospital in the capital was like a “military warzone hospital” despite “unbelievable tough gun laws”.
“I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital right in the middle is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds,” Trump said on Friday.
“They don’t have guns. They have knives and instead there’s blood all over the floors of this hospital.”
Pretending to stab someone, the 71-year-old continued: “They say it’s as bad as a military warzone hospital. Knives, knives, knives, knives.”
“London hasn’t been used to that. They’re getting used to it. It’s pretty tough.”
Trump is set to make a controversial “working visit” to the UK on July 13, despite the threat of mass protests. Reports suggest he will meet with the Queen during the trip.
The president’s speech in Dallas was his fourth consecutive appearance at the NRA’s annual convention.
Trump said Democrats wanted to “outlaw guns” and said if the nation took that step, it might as well ban all vans and trucks because they were the new weapons for “maniac terrorists”.
But he told the convention that his administration was “fighting to protect your Second Amendment” - the right to bear arms.
Those rights “will never, ever be under siege as long as I’m your president”, Trump pledged.