President Donald Trump was publicly rebuked on Thursday by UK Prime Minister Theresa May for retweeting anti-Muslim videos, which she deemed “wrong.”
After Trump directed his criticism of May on Twitter, she faced increasing pressure to cancel the president’s planned visit to the UK, but she indicated that the visit will take place and suggested relations between the two countries will survive.
British lawmakers, however, condemned Trump’s move and labeled him a “hate peddler,” “racist” and “fascist.” Some even went so far as to urge Trump to delete his account because sharing such content showed he was ”either a racist, incompetent or unthinking. Or all three.” Another Member of Parliament suggested that if Trump came to the UK he should be arrested. The UK ambassador in Washington also expressed concerns regarding the president’s retweets of the inflammatory videos.
In response to Trump’s retweets, May said: “I’m very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do. Britain First is a hateful organization. It seeks to spread mistrust and division in our communities. It stands against common British decency.”
The controversy, which began on Wednesday with Trump’s sharing of three anti-Muslim videos posted by the far-right and nationalist political organization Britain First, continued with the exchange of rebukes between Trump and May on Twitter.
Trump called on May not to focus on him, but rather on “the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom.” The UK prime minister then responded by pointing out that despite the close UK-U.S. relationship, they were not “afraid to say when we think that the United States has got it wrong and to be very clear with them.”
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the president on Thursday.
“I think he knew what the issues are, and that is that we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism, not just in this country, but across the globe,” she said.
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