LONDON — A growing number of Americans have applied to become British citizens since Donald Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year.

Home Office figures showed a 50 percent increase in citizenship applications from the U.S., with a record 2,194 applications between April and June, compared to 1,465 in the same period the year before.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a staunch critic of the U.S. president, said the figures reflected the capital city’s “liberal values.”

“Prominent figures in the U.S. and U.K. deliberately talk down our country, and in particular our capital city,” Khan told the Guardian newspaper Monday evening, stressing that the latest statistics proved them wrong.

Since the start of 2025, the Home Office has received citizenship applications from 4,125 U.S. citizens, a 40 percent rise on 2024.

“For many Americans I speak with, it’s because of our values,” the London mayor added ahead of Trump’s historic second state visit, which begins Tuesday. “As well as being the U.K.’s financial, legal and governmental center, in London we offer an ecosystem that is unparalleled around the world, from our brilliant universities to our culture and our creative industries.”

And Khan suggested it was London’s “liberal values that make us stand out — celebrating our diversity in London as a strength, not as a threat to society.”

Khan and Trump have frequently clashed. During a visit to his Scottish golf courses in July, the U.S. president called Khan “a nasty person” who’s “done a terrible job” in office.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended Khan as “a friend of mine, actually.”