Trump shares video by Katie Hopkins defending him over racist tweets
Donald Trump has retweeted videos posted by far-right commentator Katie Hopkins supporting his recent racist attacks on four US congresswomen.
The president shared several messages praising his leadership and criticising the group of female Democrat politicians known as “the Squad”. He also retweeted Ms Hopkins’ latest attack on Sadiq Khan, adding his personal comment: “With the incompetent Mayor of London, you will never have safe
streets!”
Mr Trump has been widely condemned for telling the Democrat congresswomen to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”. His attacks prompted supporters at a rally on Wednesday to chant “Send her back” about congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a US citizen who was born in Somalia.
The president denied his comments were racist and suggested that Ms Omar and her fellow Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib should leave because they “hate our country”.
He continued his verbal assault yesterday morning by sharing with his 62 million followers a video of Ms Hopkins urging people to back him in the 2020 presidential election. He also retweeted her approval of his attack on the Democrat congresswomen.
“How I wish we had such leadership in the UK,” she wrote. “Trump does not give offence. #TheSquad choose to take it. #TheSquad need to make better decisions.”
The president then continued his attack on the mayor of London by retweeting a reference to the hacking of the Metropolitan Police website. Mr Trump also shared a claim by Ms Hopkins that ”send her back is the new lock her up” – a reference to the notorious chant about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
The president added: “As you can see, I did nothing to lead people on, nor was I particularly happy with their chant. Just a very big and patriotic crowd. They love the USA!”
Since losing her jobs as a controversial columnist and radio host for the Daily Mail, The Sun and LBC, Ms Hopkins has become a prominent supporter of jailed activist Tommy Robinson. In September last year she applied for an insolvency agreement in a last-ditch attempt to avoid bankruptcy after losing a libel case to food writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe.