In a sharp personal rebuke, the British government told President Donald Trump he was “wrong” to retweet on Wednesday a series of anti-Muslim video clips promoted by a leader of an ultranationalist fringe group that the prime minister’s office said “peddles lies” and “hateful narratives.”
Trump had alerted his millions of followers to three video posts by Britain First, a small group of far-right nationalists whose supporters march in front of mosques with crosses and whose leaders decry what they describe as a takeover of British Christian society by “foreign infidels” who want to impose Islamic law.
The three videos Trump shared were titled “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!,” “Muslim destroys a statue of Virgin Mary!” and “Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!”. The videos provide no context.
Criticism of the president’s retweets came thick and fast in Britain, drawing in Prime Minister Theresa May, whose office said Trump was “wrong” to promote the videos.
Trump did not apologize or explain. Instead, Wednesday night he tweeted a response directly to the British prime minister: “@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”
.@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017
