Donald Trump fired back at British Prime Minister Theresa May Wednesday evening after the U.K. government condemned the U.S. president for a group of tweets.
Trump retweeted three unverified, anti-Muslim videos Wednesday morning, a move that garnered backlash from across the world. A spokesperson for May said Trump was wrong to share the anti-Muslim videos.
Trump later fired back at the prime minister telling her “don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom.”
In the initial tweet, which has since been deleted, he tagged Twitter user @TheresaMay, which isn’t the handle for the British PM. (May’s verified Twitter is @Theresa_May.)
He then tweeted again with May’s proper account tagged.
The videos in question were first put on Twitter by a member of the Britain First political party in the U.K.
A spokesperson for May issued a statement on the incident earlier on Wednesday.
“Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions. They cause anxiety to law-abiding people,” the spokesperson said. “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.”
Other members of U.K. parliament called for harsher actions against Trump.
The leader of U.K.’s Labour Party called on the British government to “condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump.”
“They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society,” Jeremy Corbyn tweeted.
British MPs called for Trump’s visit across the pond to be canceled.
“At some point you’ve got to draw a line, or you’re going down a very dangerous road,” MP Chuka Umunna said, according to the Independent.
“He is no ally or friend of ours. Donald Trump, you are not welcome in my country and my city,” MP David Lammy said.
The videos haven’t been verified, and one, titled “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches,” has been proved to be fake.
In defence of Trump’s tweets, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the authenticity of the videos doesn’t matter because the “threat is real.”
“I’m not talking about the nature of the video,” Sanders told reporters. “I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing. The threat is real and that’s what the president is talking about. The need for national security, the need for military spending and those are very real things, there’s nothing fake about that.”
*with files from Adam Frisk
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