President Trump was unfamiliar with Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of an ultra-nationalist political group in Britain, when he retweeted a series of videos from her Twitter account on Wednesday, the White House said Thursday.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked if Trump knew Fransen or was familiar with her reputation in the United Kingdom at the time that he shared the videos, each of which claimed to depict Muslims engaging in various acts of violence.
“No, I don’t believe so,” Sanders told reporters. “But I think he knew what the real issues are and that is that we have a real threat of extreme violence and terrorism, not just in this country but across the globe.”
“That was the point he was making,” she added.
Fransen was found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment around the time of the U.S. presidential election last November, after she was arrested for abusing a Muslim woman while she was with her four children.
The far-right leader, who praised Trump after he shared the videos, has also been accused of using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior” while delivering a recent speech in Northern Ireland.
UK Communities Secretary Sajid Javid described Fransen as the leader of “a hate-filled racist organization that hates me and people like me,” in a tweet on Wednesday. Javid is Muslim and a senior official within British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government.
Sanders told reporters that Trump had “elevated the conversation to talk about a real issue and a real threat” when he shared the videos to his 43 million followers on Wednesday.
“The president feels that bringing up important issues of our time, like extreme violence and terrorism, are important to do,” she said. “He’s going to continue to do that through a number of venues.”
