Thursday 30 November 2017

"By their Friends Shall Ye Know them:" Trump and the Far Right.

   It is clear that the British Government should withdraw its invitation to US President Donald Trump?

The President retweeted three anti-Muslim videos from the account of Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen early Wednesday to his nearly 44 million followers.


As we know  and the President of the USA should have realised Britain First is a UK-based far-right ultranationalist political party that is vehemently anti-immigration. Its campaigns include to ban the BBC from “discriminating against white Britons”, to stop the expansion of mosques and to prevent the “persecution” of leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen. Ms Fransen was convicted last year of religiously aggravated harassment after abusing a woman wearing a hijab.

At least one of the videos Mr Trump retweeted, which has the caption “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches”, has been proven fake.
Dutch blog GeenStijl reports that “the perpetrator was not a Muslim, let alone a migrant, but simply a Dutchman”. A spokesman for the Dutch public prosecution confirmed the suspect was “born and raised in the Netherlands”.
In the video, one teen in a park places his arm around the other before punching him and kicking him on the ground. As a result of the video, first published in May, two local teens were arrested.

But in many ways it what followed was the most disgraceful 
 
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the President, saying it didn’t matter if the videos were real or not.

 “I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing. The threat is real and that’s what the President is talking about, is the need for national security, the need for military spending and those are very real things; there’s nothing fake about that,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

By their Friends Shall Ye Know them:

The response clearly sees the Trump administration  allying themselves with Far Right groups.

 This is not a simple mistake by the President it reflects his own world view/


Far from clarifying or even apologising   Donald Trump has told UK Prime Minister Theresa May to focus on "terrorism" in the UK after she criticised his sharing of far-right videos
.
"Don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom," Mr Trump tweeted.

Mrs May's spokesman said it was "wrong for the president to have done this".
The US and the UK are close allies and often described as having a "special relationship". Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit the Trump White House.

 
., don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!
 Anthony Zurcher, the BBC North America reporter 

It's clear at this point that Donald Trump won't let a perceived slight or criticism go unanswered - even if it's from a supposed friend. Even if it's from the leader of the president's closest international ally.
So shock isn't exactly the right word to describe the reaction to Mr Trump's initially botched attempt to tell Theresa May to, in effect, mind her own business. This is just another example of the US president's self-described "modern-day presidential" use of social media, where Twitter is a cudgel for score-settling no matter the diplomatic cost.

One of the effects of Brexit  will undoubtedly  see the UK coming under increases  influence of the US as Trump's presidency seeks trade deals with May or her successor that will benefit US interest.

How much longer should people use the term "Leader of the Free World" to describe the role of the US president?

Trump is certainly not my leader and he represents a world view I want no part of.
  

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