A tiny group of far-right nationalists in Britain, who march in front of mosques with crosses, got a big publicity boost Wednesday when President Trump retweeted three of their inflammatory anti-Muslim videos to his millions of followers. Criticism of the Trump retweets came thick and fast in Britain, even drawing Prime Minister Theresa May, whose office said Trump was “wrong” to promote the videos, produced by the group Britain First, whose leaders have been prosecuted and jailed for harassing Muslims. In a direct rebuke of the American president, May’s office condemned Britain First for its use of “hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions.” The statement continued, “The British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right, which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents — decency, tolerance and respect. It is wrong for the President to have done this.”
British leaders across the political spectrum were amazed and appalled by Trump’s tweets endorsing a micro-group that usually draws just a few dozen supporters to its rallies. Some said Trump was trying to legitimize the far right in Britain, while others were so flabbergasted that they wondered whether he was perhaps either naive or ignorant. “Britain First is an appalling organization,” Martin Callanan, a Conservative Party politician and a government minister, told the BBC. Referring to Trump, Callanan said: “I can only assume he has made a mistake and that he didn’t realize who Britain First were.”
Britain First was founded in 2011 by Jim Dowson, an antiabortion campaigner, and Paul Golding, a former councilor for the British National Party. The anti-Muslim group soon became known for its “Christian patrols” and for driving around in paramilitary-style vehicles and wearing uniforms to match. Its members became notorious for targeting mosques and Muslim-majority areas and then producing short, selectively edited videos of their provocative tactics. Over the spring and summer this year, for instance, a few dozen activists with Britain First, waving the Union Jack and carrying white crosses, marched in front of the East London Mosque.
Even Paul Joseph Watson of the far-right, conspiracy-minded Infowars tweeted that giving Britain First a megaphone is not a good look for Trump. “Yeah, someone might want to tell whoever is running Trump’s Twitter account this morning that retweeting Britain First is not great optics,” Watson wrote.
In June 2016, Labour Party lawmaker Jo Cox [Member of Parliament] was stabbed to death by an assailant alleged to have shouted “Britain first!” Leaders of the Britain First group said there were no ties between the attacker and their organization. The assailant had links to neo-Nazi groups. On Wednesday morning, Cox’s widower, Brendan Cox, tweeted, “Trump has legitimized 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.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/tr ... 407a28f238
Trump is playing to his base, other presidents would throw some bits to their base but were more moderate. Trump is historically low in the polls and someone is advising him to play only to his base. Reality is that his base can't save him or re-elect him, his base isn't that large.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan