President fires back at British PM May amid controversy over Islamic extremism tweets
WASHINGTON — President Trump fired a Twitter barb at British Prime Minister Theresa May after her office condemned his retweets of videos yesterday from a fringe British political group claiming to show violence being committed by Muslim extremists.
Trump’s tweets drew a sharp condemnation from May’s office, which said it was “wrong for the president to have done this.” May spokesman James Slack said the far-right Britain First group seeks to divide through its use of “hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions.”
Brushing off the criticism in an evening tweet, Trump said May, instead of focusing on him, should “focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom.”
By sharing the three videos tweeted by Jayda Fransen of Britain First, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was just promoting border security.
“Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real and that is what the president is talking about,” Sanders said.
The tweets read: “VIDEO: Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!” and “VIDEO: Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!” and “VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”
On the campaign trail, Trump was accused by political opponents of fanning anti-Muslim sentiments with his focus on Islamic extremism. As president, he fought court battles seeking travel bans on several majority-Muslim countries that had been identified by the Obama administration as sources of terrorism and briefly subjected to similar bans.
Council on American-Islamic Relations director Nihad Awad said
‘Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real and that is what the president is talking about’ — SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS White House press secretary