LONDON — US President Donald Trump has apologized for the first time for retweeting a British far-right group’s videos apparently showing Islamist violence, in an ITV interview aired in Britain on Friday.
“If you’re telling me they’re horrible racist people, I would certainly apologize if you’d like me to do that,” he told Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan during the interview, conducted in Davos on Thursday.
Trump sparked outrage in Britain in November when he retweeted, in quick succession, three anti-Muslim videos posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First who was convicted in 2016 of religiously aggravated harassment of a Muslim woman.
Morgan accused the president of causing “huge anxiety and anger in my country, because Britain First is basically a bunch of racists, fascists.”
“Of course I didn’t know that,” Trump responded in excerpts of the interview aired Friday.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
“I know nothing about them (Britain First), I know nothing about them today, other than I read a little bit,” he added.
“Perhaps it was a big story in the UK, but in the United States it wasn’t a big story.
“I did a retweet. When you do those retweets they can cause problems because you never know who’s doing it to start off with,” the president told Morgan.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
