Outrage In U.K. Grows Over Trump’s Retweets Of Extremist Videos

With a few retweets, President Donald Trump has prompted outrage across the British political spectrum and severely tested relations with one of the United States’ closest allies.

Many in the U.K. said Trump was explicitly endorsing extremism by sharing inflammatory anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant videos posted by a senior member of a fringe far-right group.

The mood here was further soured by Trump’s decision to double down and seemingly criticize Prime Minister Theresa May from his social-media pulpit.

The reaction from lawmakers and commentators was swift and scathing.

“The president of the United States is now an accessory to the incitement of hate and the incitement of violence,” said Scott Lucas, a professor of American studies at the U.K.’s University of Birmingham.

“What he has done is given them this platform on social media and then compounded it by saying the prime minister is illegitimate.”

Trump had already endured staunch criticism after suggesting there was “blame on both sides” for the race-fueled riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, suggesting that counter protesters were as much at fault as the white nationalist they were demonstrating against.

But Trump’s retweet Wednesday went further than he had before, Lucas said. “This is not left versus right — everyone here is appalled by this.”