You’ve got a nerve.. President tweets nonsense about UK crime.. told ‘fix gun control, you twerp’
DONALD Trump was told to “butt out” and worry about his own problems yesterday after wrongly linking the surge in our recorded crime rates to Islamic terror.
The gaffe-prone US President tweeted: “Just out report: ‘United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.’ Not good, we must keep America safe!”
His attack came as gun violence was high on the US agenda after crazed Stephen Paddock killed 58 people in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames, who is the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, called him a “daft twerp” who should “fix gun control”.
Mr Trump was referring to Office for National Statistics figures out this week, showing a 13% increase in recorded offences in England and Wales.
The only mention of terror was the impact the London and Manchester atrocities, which killed 35, had on the murder rate.
The President, who has tried to bar Muslims from entering the US, was accused of trying to push his own racist agenda. Labour’s Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Office Select Committee, said: “Hate crime in the UK has gone up by almost 30% and rubbish like this tweet from Donald Trump is designed to provoke even more of it.” Lib Dem deputy leader Jo Swinson accused him of being “misleading and spreading fear”. Labour’s Stephen Doughty said he was “talking nonsense” and should be “looking at issues in his own country such as the huge number of deaths from gun violence”. And colleague Chris Bryant said: “Butt out of it, mister President.” Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain slammed the tweet as “incompetent”. Far-right groups and pundits – including former English Defence League chief Tommy Robinson, who re-tweeted the message – believed the President had endorsed their vile views. Mr Trump also exaggerated the impact of radical Islam here during his election campaign, claiming police in London feared for their lives due to the number of radicals there.