US President Donald Trump says he is ready to apologise for retweeting anti-Muslim videos
He said he was not aware of the politics of the far-right Britain First party, whose leader had first tweeted the videos.
Two months after he sparked outrage by sharing three unverified anti-Muslim videos on Twitter, United States President Donald Trump is ready to apologise. In an interview on the talk show Good Morning Britain, Trump has said he “knew nothing” about the person who had first tweeted the videos.
Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of far-right Britain First party, had first tweeted the videos on November 29. The retweets had led to anger against Trump in the United Kingdom because of Fransen’s past record of hate speech and anti-Islam rhetoric. Prime Minister Theresa May herself said retweeting the videos was “the wrong thing to do”.
Trump said he shared the videos only because he opposes radical Islamic terror. The interview, with presenter Piers Morgan, will be telecast in the UK on Sunday.
“If you are telling me they are horrible people – horrible, racist people – I would certainly apologise if you would like me to do that,” Trump said.
The retweets had briefly raised an alarm over the relations between the US and the UK, which are staunch allies. After May condemned the videos, Trump said: “Theresa May, do not focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”
Trump is likely to visit the UK later this year.
The tweets, now unavailable as Twitter has suspended Fransen’s account, showed unverified videos depicting purported violence by Muslims. Fransen was convicted in 2016 for “religiously aggravated harassment” and has been arrested multiple times, including as recently as on November 19, for alleged hate speech.
One of the videos Fransen tweeted and Trump retweeted showed an “Islamist group” pushing a boy off a roof. The second claimed to show a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary while the third showed immigrants hitting a Dutch boy on crutches.