Dr. Sebastian Gorka, current deputy assistant to U.S. President Donald J. Trump and former editor at Breitbart News, slammed the BBC who suggested the recent administration travel ban was “dictatorial”.

Dr. Gorka was asked by BBC Newsnight host Emily Maitlis, “Does it matter to you if leaders around Europe and around the world think that this is the efforts of a dictator gone mad?”

The former Breitbart News editor gave a scathing reply to the presenter and left-wing critics of the travel ban saying, “It matters to us that people are being mowed down in mass numbers in Nice. People are being massacred on the streets of Paris, of Brussels and we don’t want that to happen here.”

He continued, saying, “That’s what matters to us and anybody who uses that kind of language on a duly elected democratically chosen representative and head of government really should have their credentials examined very closely.”

Also on the programme was Slate writer Katy Waldman who likened the U.S. president to a “Roman emperor” and said that Trump was a “good showman” regarding his choice to announce his supreme court pick in “prime time”.

The subject of a state visit to the UK by President Trump was also raised. During her visit to Washington D.C., Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Her Majesty the Queen had extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the UK later this year.

Left-wing activists launched a petition to ban the president from a state visit and parliament announced they would be debating the issue on February 20th. The issue is not the first time British left-wing politicians have attempted to ban Trump as last year MPs debated banning him from the country entirely.

Despite the efforts of left-wing activists, pro-Trump supporting Britons launched a counter-petition which amassed more than 100,000 signatures, the number at which it will be considered for debate in parliament. Polls released this week also showed a broad support for a Trump visit with 49 per cent of respondents being in favour and only 29 against the visit.

“The fact is the visit of Theresa May some days ago went superbly,” Gorka said, adding, “As a result I expect everything to go along swimmingly” when asked if he thought the state visit may be delayed.

On the subject of the anti-Trump petition, he said, “If we keep government policies hostage to petitions then everybody would say ‘I don’t want to pay any taxes’ and there’d be a petition for zero taxes. That’s not how a representative democracy functions, or a republic.”