Trump angers UK with truculent tweet to May after sharing far-right videos

[webfact]

Trump angers UK with truculent tweet to May after sharing far-right videos

By Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden

 

British Prime Minister Theresa May criticizes U.S. President Trump for retweeting anti-Islam videos from the deputy leader of Britain First which she called a “hateful” group. 

 

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump sparked outrage in Britain on Thursday with a sharp rebuke of Prime Minister Theresa May on Twitter after she criticised him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos.

 

As British politicians lined up to condemn Trump for sharing videos originally posted by a leader of a British far-right fringe group, Trump, in an unprecedented attack on one of America's closest allies, replied with an unrepentant message.

 

"Theresa @theresamay, 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," he tweeted.

 

His truculent response caused anger in Britain, where there have been several major Islamist militant attacks this year, with one minister describing Trump's tweets as "alarming and despairing". London's Muslim mayor called for the withdrawal of an offer to him to make a state visit to Britain.

 

May, on a visit to Jordan, repeated her view, expressed earlier by her spokesman, that the U.S. leader was wrong for sharing anti-Muslim videos posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First. But she did not directly respond to Trump's rebuke.

 

"I'm very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do," May told reporters in Jordan. She said the group was a "hateful organisation" that sought to spread division and mistrust.

 

"The fact that we work together does not mean that we're afraid to say when we think the United States has got it wrong, and be very clear with them," May said. She added that Britain had a long-term, enduring relationship with the United States.

 

The British ambassador to the United States, Kim Darroch, said he had raised concerns with White House officials. "British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which seek to divide communities & erode decency, tolerance & respect," he wrote on Twitter.

 

Fransen, who was convicted this month of abusing a Muslim woman and whose group wants to ban Islam, is facing further criminal charges of racially aggravated harassment.

 

TRUMP AND MAY ONCE HAND-IN-HAND

 

Islamist militants have carried out several major attacks in Britain this year that have killed a total of 36 people, including a bombing in Manchester and two attacks on bridges in London in which victims were rammed with vehicles and stabbed.

 

Trump initially addressed his rebuke to a Twitter handle that was not May's, though he later retweeted to the British leader's correct account.

 

Always a pillar of Britain's foreign policy, the so-called "special relationship" with Washington has taken on added importance as Britain prepares to leave the European Union in 2019 and seeks new major trade deals.

 

Since Trump became president, May has gone out of her way to cultivate a good relationship with him.

 

She was the first foreign leader to visit him after his inauguration in January, and they were filmed emerging from the White House holding hands. She later said Trump took her hand in a gentlemanly gesture as they walked down a ramp.

 

But she angered his many critics in Britain then by extending an invitation to make a state visit to Britain with all the pomp and pageantry it brings including a formal banquet with Queen Elizabeth.

 

London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, said May should withdraw the offer of a state visit. "After this latest incident, it is increasingly clear that any official visit at all from President Trump to Britain would not be welcomed," Khan, who has clashed on Twitter with Trump, said.

 

British lawmakers held an urgent session to discuss Trump's tweets, with parliamentarians from across the political divide united in condemnation.

 

"By sharing it (the videos), he is either a racist, incompetent or unthinking, or all three," opposition Labour lawmaker Stephen Doughty said. Britain's Middle East minister Alistair Burt tweeted: "The White House tweets are both alarming and despairing tonight. This is so not where the world needs to go."

 

Despite repeated calls from opposition lawmakers to cancel the state visit, Home Secretary (interior minister) Amber Rudd said the invitation still stood although a timing had not been agreed.

 

"RACIST"

 

Outside parliament, there was more harsh criticism from the likes of Brendan Cox, the husband of lawmaker Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016 by a far-right extremist and Justin Welby, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church.

 

The U.S. ambassador to London Woody Johnson wrote on Twitter he had relayed concerns to Washington. "The U.S. & UK have a long history of speaking frankly with each other, as all close friends do," he said.

 

The videos shared by Trump purported to show a group of people who were Muslims beating a teenage boy to death, battering a boy on crutches and destroying a Christian statue.

 

Reuters was unable to verify the videos. The Dutch embassy in Washington issued a Twitter comment on one of them, which Fransen had described as showing a "Muslim migrant" beating up a boy.

 

"@realDonald Trump Facts do matter. The perpetrator of the violent act in this video was born and raised in the Netherlands," the embassy said. "He received and completed his sentence under Dutch law."

 

"DELIGHTED"

 

Britain First, a little-known party on the periphery of UK politics, welcomed Trump's retweeting of the videos to his 44 million followers, regarding it as an endorsement of their message.

 

"I'm delighted," said Fransen, whose own Twitter following increase by 50 percent in the wake of the furore to 78,000. She told Reuters Trump's retweets showed the president shared her aim of raising awareness of "issues such as Islam".

 

The White House defended the retweets by the Republican president, who during the 2016 U.S. election campaign called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States", saying that he was raising security issues.

 

It repeatedly refused to be drawn into the content of the videos or whether Trump was aware of the source of the tweets.

 

"It's about ensuring that individuals who come into the United States don't pose a public safety or terrorism threat," White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters aboard Air Force One.

 

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon, Elizabeth Piper and William James; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-01

[ChrisY1]

If the inane "Do-gooders" in the UK had been floored years ago, the country wouldn't be the hot-bed of islam that it now is...and the types of incidents on these vids, may not have happened.!

Trump on the other hand, is mad!

[Scott]

Troll posts removed. 

[Andaman Al]

34 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

If the inane "Do-gooders" in the UK had been floored years ago, the country wouldn't be the hot-bed of islam that it now is...and the types of incidents on these vids, may not have happened.!

Trump on the other hand, is mad!

The incidents on the vids were absolutely nothing to do with the UK.  

[Bluespunk]

1 hour ago, ChrisY1 said:

If the inane "Do-gooders" in the UK had been floored years ago, the country wouldn't be the hot-bed of islam that it now is...and the types of incidents on these vids, may not have happened.!

Trump on the other hand, is mad!

I thought the point was they didn’t happen. 

 

At at least not in the manner the islamaphobic, fascist group, trump was supporting, claims they did anyway. 

Edited December 1, 2017 by Bluespunk

[Bluespunk]

Why is it only the London mayor’s faith that is mentioned?

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"By sharing it (the videos), he is either a racist, incompetent or unthinking, or all three,"

I’ll go with “all three”. 

[rudi49jr]

The vindictive and utterly clueless man child occupying the White House needs to have his twitter privileges revoked. What a joke that boob is, giving a racist and white-supremacy party in the UK a platform to spoute their vile and nazi ideas. Trump is an embarrassment to everything that the USA stands for, like freedom of speech and the freedom of press. And he does nothing else but spread fake news himself. What a great guy, and what a great president he is. Please give me a bucket to puke in ....

[Jonnapat]

2 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

The vindictive and utterly clueless man child occupying the White House needs to have his twitter privileges revoked. What a joke that boob is, giving a racist and white-supremacy party in the UK a platform to spoute their vile and nazi ideas. Trump is an embarrassment to everything that the USA stands for, like freedom of speech and the freedom of press. And he does nothing else but spread fake news himself. What a great guy, and what a great president he is. Please give me a bucket to puke in ....

Most of the rest of the world would probably agree with your well worded post

[aslimversgwm]

3 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

The vindictive and utterly clueless man child occupying the White House needs to have his twitter privileges revoked. What a joke that boob is, giving a racist and white-supremacy party in the UK a platform to spoute their vile and nazi ideas. Trump is an embarrassment to everything that the USA stands for, like freedom of speech and the freedom of press. And he does nothing else but spread fake news himself. What a great guy, and what a great president he is. Please give me a bucket to puke in ....

I couldn't have put it better Rudi. Waiting for the trumpettes  to answer this. I think they're the same lot that support Brexit. Tarred with same brush imnsho!

[FreddieRoyle]

3 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

The vindictive and utterly clueless man child occupying the White House needs to have his twitter privileges revoked. What a joke that boob is, giving a racist and white-supremacy party in the UK a platform to spoute their vile and nazi ideas. Trump is an embarrassment to everything that the USA stands for, like freedom of speech and the freedom of press. And he does nothing else but spread fake news himself. What a great guy, and what a great president he is. Please give me a bucket to puke in ....

Your post calls for an end to free speech for somebody you personally dislike. You then go on a frenzy of hurling insults calling a politician a "boob", "racist", "vile", "nazi", "embarrasment","fake news" and call for a bucket to puke in. Sad to see such insults tolerated/encouraged on a public forum. But, icing on the cake, you then worry about freedom of speech. Your post encompasses in a nutshell how low the intolerant liberals have sunk, and how Trumps retweet of the 3 messages was a resounding success in that it did exactly what Trump intended, to have the forbidden to be discussed, discussed.

[Andaman Al]

17 minutes ago, FreddieRoyle said:

Your post calls for an end to free speech for somebody you personally dislike. You then go on a frenzy of hurling insults calling a politician a "boob", "racist", "vile", "nazi", "embarrasment","fake news" and call for a bucket to puke in. Sad to see such insults tolerated/encouraged on a public forum. But, icing on the cake, you then worry about freedom of speech. Your post encompasses in a nutshell how low the intolerant liberals have sunk, and how Trumps retweet of the 3 messages was a resounding success in that it did exactly what Trump intended, to have the forbidden to be discussed, discussed.

Trump is calling for an end to free speech because the media dislike him and call him for what he is - 'vile', a 'nazi sympathiser', an 'embarrassment', a 'liar', and the worst purveyor of fake news. Sad to see the insults that are thrown out by Trump (when he goes into a frenzy of hurling insults via twitter) to all manner of people are tolerated by 35 million hard core followers. Your post encompasses in a nut shell how right wing extremist white supremacists are trying to normalise hatred and spread a false narrative. Please don't credit Trump with any intelligence saying he was trying to get people to talk about a 'forbidden' subject. Trump intended nothing other than stirring the crap and dividing the nation and it's allies even more. He is following the orders of his Lord and Master - Bannon.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Andaman Al

[Baerboxer]

16 minutes ago, Andaman Al said:

Trump is calling for an end to free speech because the media dislike him and call him for what he is - 'vile', a 'nazi sympathiser', an 'embarrassment', a 'liar', and the worst purveyor of fake news. Sad to see the insults that are thrown out by Trump (when he goes into a frenzy of hurling insults via twitter) to all manner of people are tolerated by 35 million hard core followers. Your post encompasses in a nut shell how right wing extremist white supremacists are trying to normalise hatred and spread a false narrative. Please don't credit Trump with any intelligence saying he was trying to get people to talk about a 'forbidden' subject. Trump intended nothing other than stirring the crap and dividing the nation and it's allies even more. He is following the orders of his Lord and Master - Bannon.

 

Trump exhibits some strange behavior and attitudes for sure. But is he really a Nazi sympathiser? Does he believe in racial purity, in exterminating the Jews, in genetic manipulation to produce desired racial characteristics?

 

The use of Nazi get's banded about too easily by the left for those they don't like as a way of discrediting them. Not suggesting you are doing that, but do you really believe he follows Nazi ideology.

 

Trump certainly makes comments about religion and race, some of which are highly inappropriate for his position. And some of his general comments seem quite bizarre. But I'm not sure he understands, or even wants to understand let alone support any particular political ideology. Capitalism, a society of wealth based privilege, and one that conforms to his way of thinking seems his desire. 

 

Britain First are Nazis. And a tiny tiny group of nutters. I doubt Trump has any idea about them or what they stand for. But liked another go at bashing Muslims as he still wants his travel bans etc.so just reposted their crap.

 

 

[Mansell]

Twitter should step forward and close his account for posting right wing fascist crap that could incite hatred. But on the other hand, give this Moron enough rope and he will hang himself.

I wonder about his family members, what on earth do they think of his abhorrent behavior? My brother was/is a sociopath and worked for British Intelligence.......they love people like that because they do not have a conscience.....he robbed banks in England and then they blamed it on the IRA.....They sent him to kill people etc. I was in a restaurant once in California and disagreed with something he said....he started screaming at me at the top of his lungs.....the whole restaurant froze including me. And then he carried on talking as if nothing unusual had happened. I spoke with his son about this later, and his response was, "Is that the first time you have seen that in a restaurant from him?"

They all just thought he had a bad temper......now this was in the 80's and the average person in England knew nothing about sociopaths.

And sometimes based on the Moron in Chiefs behavior, I wonder if he is a sociopath.....not paying people who work for him....responding like a child to any criticism....making fun of the less fortunate.....calling people names.....no apologies (you can't apologize if you don't have a conscience because you don't understand you have done anything wrong, so you cannot empathize) only focusing on yourself....talking about women as non-humans and purely sexual objects.....etc.

One also wonders about his wife and why would she be with such a man? Maybe money is the answer.....but what a price to pay for being with a total shit.

[Briggsy]

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

But I'm not sure he understands, or even wants to understand let alone support any particular political ideology. Capitalism, a society of wealth based privilege, and one that conforms to his way of thinking seems his desire. 

He wants to increase his wealth, feed his enormous ego and protect himself and his wealth (from prosecution and debtors (?)). And then to pass it on to his progeny. We are back to ego again.

 

He does this by the support of his base amongst other tactics. His base is fired up by anger and resentment. Trump plays this very well. They resent Moslems amongst other groups. He needs to keep his support base to keep power to achieve the goals laid out in the first paragraph.

 

So, I agree with you the ideology is neither cared for nor understood by Trump, it is the result that counts. He could switch to a tweetstorm of hating Catholics tomorrow if it achieved his aims of keeping his support base.

[Somtamnication]

The yanks are finding themselves with less and less friends. So sad! 

[dunroaming]

4 hours ago, FreddieRoyle said:

You then go on a frenzy of hurling insults calling a politician a "boob", "racist", "vile", "nazi", "embarrasment","fake news" and call for a bucket to puke in.

Yes I understand your frustration.  Clearly more than one bucket to puke into is not enough, many are needed. As for the insults I think they fall far short of what could be said.  I mean what is wrong with adding homophobic, moronic, brain dead imbecile.  Actually the list is pretty endless.

 

And of course gutless!  Given that today US diplomats have said that Trump's planned trip to Britain has been postponed.  He was due to come and open the new American Embassy in the new year but that has been shelved.  Hopefully he will be replaced by someone who represents America as it should be represented... I wonder if Mickey Mouse is available?

[Thakkar]

8 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Why is it only the London mayor’s faith that is mentioned?

Because “brown-skinned” is too many letters?

 

A curious side note: in the ‘80s, “Sophia Gandhi” was invariably preceded by “Italian-born” both in the Indian and International Press. As far as I can recall, the Indian press have stopped using that prefix, but the international press still often does.

[Berkshire]

3 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Trump exhibits some strange behavior and attitudes for sure. But is he really a Nazi sympathiser? Does he believe in racial purity, in exterminating the Jews, in genetic manipulation to produce desired racial characteristics?

 

The use of Nazi get's banded about too easily by the left for those they don't like as a way of discrediting them. Not suggesting you are doing that, but do you really believe he follows Nazi ideology.

 

Trump certainly makes comments about religion and race, some of which are highly inappropriate for his position. And some of his general comments seem quite bizarre. But I'm not sure he understands, or even wants to understand let alone support any particular political ideology. Capitalism, a society of wealth based privilege, and one that conforms to his way of thinking seems his desire. 

 

Britain First are Nazis. And a tiny tiny group of nutters. I doubt Trump has any idea about them or what they stand for. But liked another go at bashing Muslims as he still wants his travel bans etc.so just reposted their crap.

 

 

I've been trying to figure out what Trump really stands for--aside from himself--and there really hasn't been any indication that he has any core beliefs about anything...except maybe one.  He does seem to have this streak of white supremacist about him, although it's pretty subtle.  He has his past in NYC and he relishes attacking non-white people, whether it's black athletes, or Muslims, or Mexicans...but rarely a white person (unless they attack him first or disapprove of him).  He would never attack a Putin but would be all over NFL dudes who took a knee without ever mentioning Trump.  And we know about his intense hatred of Obama.  There's just something strange about this dude....or maybe he's just evil. 

[attrayant]

Your post calls for an end to free speech

You clearly don't know the difference between free speech and hate speech. And neither does Trump.

[nontabury]

On 01/12/2017 at 5:00 PM, Thakkar said:

Because “brown-skinned” is too many letters?

 

A curious side note: in the ‘80s, “Sophia Gandhi” was invariably preceded by “Italian-born” both in the Indian and International Press. As far as I can recall, the Indian press have stopped using that prefix, but the international press still often does.

Her son Raul Gandi is often referred to as an Italian, by the opposition party.

[Opl]

"Across the country, students have used the president’s name to mock or goad minority opponents at sporting events. In March, white fans at suburban Canton High School in Connecticut shouted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” as players from Hartford’s Classical Magnet School, which is predominantly black and Latino, took foul shots during a basketball playoff game. They also chanted “He’s our president!” 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/trump-racial-jeers.html?mtrref=thehill.com