Donald Trump has ‘apologised’ for retweeting far-right Britain First, saying he knows nothing about the group and has only just learnt they are “horrible, racist people”.
In an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan aired on Good Morning Britain on Friday, the President said he wasn’t aware of the impact of the incident as it “wasn’t a big story” in the United States.
When asked if he would be willing to apologise as “it would go a long way” to help US-UK relations, Trump said: “Here’s what’s fair - if you’re telling me they’re horrible, racist people I would certainly apologise - I know nothing about them.
Morgan asked: ”You would disavow yourself of people like that?”
Trump replied: “I don’t want to be involved with people like that but you’re telling me about these people because I know nothing about these people.”
But the President’s words have been questioned by some who suggest it fell short of an actual apology.
And a tweet from Piers Morgan contains the quote “I certainly apologise” which is not actually heard in the clip or in promotional materials accompanying the interview.
Additionally, Trump’s claim he was unaware of how big a news story it was in the UK is contradicted by events from the time.
The incident in November prompted Theresa May to publicly criticise Trump for the first time, saying it was “wrong for the President to have done this”.
Trump hit back almost immediately:
The videos retweeted by Trump were either unverified or have been debunked.
They included footage of migrants allegedly assaulting a boy on crutches, clips of a boy allegedly thrown of a roof and a video claiming to show a Muslim destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Defending the content of the Britain First retweets, Trump told Morgan: “I don’t know who they are, I know nothing about them, so I wouldn’t be doing that. I am, as I say often, the least racist person that anybody’s going to meet.
“Certainly I wasn’t endorsing anybody. I knew nothing about them. They had I guess a couple of depictions of radical Islamic terror. Radical Islamic terror, whether you like talking about it or not Piers, it’s a fact.
“You look at what’s going on in UK and you look at what’s going on all over the world, you can try and shield it…”
Tracy Brabin, Labour MP for the constituency in which Jo Cox was murdered in 2016, tweeted:
Trump reiterated his feelings towards the UK, a country he said he loved very much.
“I can tell you I have a very good relationship with your Prime Minister,” Trump said. “She’s been doing a very good job. We actually have a very good relationship, although a lot of people think we don’t.”
“I support her, I support a lot of what she does and a lot of what she says and I support you militarily very much.
“We will come to your defence if anything should happen, which hopefully will never happen. I am a tremendous supporter of the UK.”
Following the interview, Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen claimed that Morgan had “misled” Trump during his questioning and had “railroaded” him into offering an apology.
Fransen further claimed she was not a “nasty racist” and challenged Morgan to discuss his claims with her.
Morgan, responding on Twitter, seemed less than interested in doing so.
President Trump - The Piers Morgan Interview airs Sunday 28th January at 10pm on ITV produced by ITV Studios Daytime.