Donald Trump has retweeted three videos showing Muslims in a bad light posted by the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First, Jayda Fransen, who has been convicted of religiously aggravated harassment.
Trump, who has 43.5 million followers on Twitter, retweeted three separate posts from Fransen, which all included unverified videos. One purportedly showed a group of Muslims pushing a boy off a roof, another claimed to show a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary and another appeared to show immigrants hitting a Dutch boy on crutches.
Fransen was found guilty last November of religiously aggravated harassment after she verbally abused a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.
She responded to the retweets from the Trump account with glee, 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!'
In September, Fransen was charged with causing religiously aggravated harassment together with the leader of Britain First, Paul Golding.
Kent police said at the time: 'The investigation related to the distribution of leaflets in the Thanet and Canterbury areas, and the posting of online videos during a trial held at Canterbury crown court the same month.'
The trial in Canterbury involved three Muslim men and a teenager who were eventually convicted of rape and sent to prison.
The extreme rightwing terrorist Thomas Mair shouted 'Britain first' before killing the MP Jo Cox during last year's referendum on EU membership.
Cox's widow, Brendan Cox, responded to Trump's retweets by himself tweeting: 'Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he's trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.'
Several MPs also expressed outrage at the retweets today, with the Tottenham MP David Lammy writing: 'Trump sharing Britain First. Let that sink in. The President of the United States is promoting a fascist, racist, extremist hate group whose leaders have been arrested and convicted. He is no ally or friend of ours. @realDonaldTrump you are not welcome in my country and my city.'
Trump has a long record of anti-Muslim rhetoric. He first called for a ban on Muslims entering the US in 2015, and has since attempted to implement the policy while President, seeking a travel ban which was originally directed at seven Muslim-majority countries. He also tweeted in 2015 about what he called the UK's 'massive Muslim problem'.
In the US, he has previously suggested the creation of a government database to track Muslim Americans and made false claims that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
