Donald Trump’s retweets of Britain First deputy leader criticised by Board of Deputies

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has condemned Donald Trump, after he shared videos tweeted by the deputy leader of far-right group Britain First, purporting to show Muslims committing crimes.

The US President retweeted three posts by Jayda Fransen on Wednesday, included unverified videos titled “Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!” and “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”

In a statement, the Board’s Vice President Marie van der Zyl said: “It is of grave concern that the President of the United States would repeatedly re-tweet videos from the deputy leader of Britain First. They are a nasty far-right group which seeks to intimidate minorities, especially Muslims. We call on the President to delete the tweets and make clear his opposition to all sorts of racism and hatred”.

Fransen, 31, from Penge, south-east London, is on bail facing four charges of causing religiously aggravated harassment as part of a Kent Police investigation into the distribution of leaflets and the posting of online videos during a trial held at Canterbury Crown Court in May.

She 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.

Mr Trump, who is known for his unguarded messages on social media, has 43.6 million followers on Twitter.

In June this year, a Press Association analysis found Facebook and Twitter had failed to take down a number of misleading videos posted by Britain First despite them having received hundreds of thousands of views.

Videos posted by the nationalist group often target minority groups, and PA analysis found they consistently posted false claims about the circumstances being shown – including untrue claims that Muslims and migrants had attacked women and police.

The retweets were met with criticism on Twitter, before a tweet from Fransen’s account, which is verified by Twitter, appeared to celebrate the retweets.

She said: “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!”