This morning, the president retweeted three videos posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a group of fascist extremists who broke with the far-right British National Party. All three videos purported to show violence committed by Muslims, in keeping with Britain First’s goal of stirring up hatred of British Muslims. As the Independent reports, the group has organized “Christian patrols,” in which “members walk the street hunting people who appear to be Muslim, and forcing entry into mosques to distribute inflammatory propaganda.”
Britain First was delighted by the legitimacy granted by the American president, writing, “THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN’S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
British TV presenter Piers Morgan, a Trump supporter, was appalled:
Good morning, Mr President @realDonaldTrump - what the hell are you doing retweeting a bunch of unverified videos by Britain First, a bunch of disgustingly racist far-right extremists?
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 29, 2017
Please STOP this madness & undo your retweets.
Even Paul Joseph Watson, an editor-at-large at Alex Jones’s Infowars, thought the re-tweets were ill-advised:
Yeah, someone might want to tell whoever is running Trump's Twitter account this morning that retweeting Britain First is not great optics. 🤔
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) November 29, 2017