Donald Trump sparked a global backlash today after retweeting a string of unverified anti-Islamic videos posted by far-right group Britain First’s deputy leader.
The US President shared the anti-Muslim messages from Jayda Fransen out to his 43.5million followers.
The first of the three videos he shared claimed to show “Muslim migrants beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”
Moments later he shared a second video, also initially posted by Ms Fransen, which claimed to show a "Muslim" destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.
A third post carried the message: "Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!"
It was not immediately clear if the tweets were deliberately retweeted from the US leader's account.
Fransen, 31, from Penge, south-east London, is on bail facing four charges of causing religiously aggravated harassment.
She is being investigated by Kent Police over the distribution of leaflets and the posting of online videos during a trial held at Canterbury Crown Court in May.
Social media users took to Twitter to condemn the retweets from Mr Trump.
Among them was Piers Morgan, who wrote: “Good morning, Mr President @realDonaldTrump - what the hell are you doing retweeting a bunch of unverified videos by Britain First, a bunch of disgustingly racist far-right extremists?
“Please STOP this madness & undo your retweets.”
Labour MP David Lammy tweeted: “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.”
Brendan Cox, widower of MP Jo Cox who was murdered by a right-wing extremist, said the US leader "should be ashamed of himself".
He wrote on social media: "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."
Paul Joseph Watson, the UK-based editor of far-right conspiracy website Infowars, said: "Yeah, someone might want to tell whoever is running Trump's Twitter account this morning that retweeting Britain First is not great optics."
Ms Fransen will also appear in court in Northern Ireland in December, charged with using threatening and abusive language in connection with a speech she made at an anti-terrorism demonstration in Belfast on August 6.
