Donald Trump attacks British PM Theresa May over her criticism of his far-right retweets
In rare clash between allies, US president tells May to focus on terrorism rather than on him – but sends the tweet to the wrong person
Donald Trump has fired a Twitter broadside at Theresa May, representing an extraordinary diplomatic spat between the allies, writing: “Theresa @theresamay, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”
The US president’s message was a response to criticism from May’s spokesman over his retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy leader of a British far-right group.
However, the “@theresamay” that Trump targeted does not belong to Theresa May, the British prime minister, but a woman called Theresa Scrivener. Her homepage says she joined Twitter in February 2009 and that her tweets are protected.
Minutes later Trump deleted and reposted the tweet, this time with the correct handle: @Theresa_May.
The feud marks a new, unexpected twist in the “special relationship” that has witnessed close ties between leaders such as Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and Tony Blair and George W Bush.
May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after he took office – they were photographed holding hands at the White House – and invited him on a state visit to Britain. But that has yet to take place after a series of controversies and warnings that protesters will take to the streets to show he is not welcome.
Hostility in the UK deepened on Wednesday when Trump highlighted videos from the feed of Jaydan Fransen of Britain First that purported to show a group of Muslims pushing a boy off a roof. Another claimed to show a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary, and a third claimed to show a Muslim immigrant hitting a Dutch boy on crutches.
The credibility of the last video was immediately undermined when the the Dutch embassy in the US said the perpetrator of the violent act in the video was born and raised in the Netherlands.
