Donald Trump has never been a fan of Muslims — as a candidate he threatened to close all mosques and called for a “complete and total shutdown” of Muslim immigration — but this morning he took his discriminatory attitude to the next level: he retweeted a series of anti-Muslim videos posted by Britain First, a hate group that opposes Muslims and immigration.

VIDEO: Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death! pic.twitter.com/XxtlxNNSiP — Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) November 29, 2017

VIDEO: Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary! pic.twitter.com/qhkrfQrtjV — Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) November 29, 2017

VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches! pic.twitter.com/11LgbfFJDq — Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) November 28, 2017

The Associated Press couldn’t determine the legitimacy of the inflammatory, bigoted videos, but they purported to show violence committed by “Muslims” and “Muslim immigrants.” (Dutch officials have said the “Muslim migrant” is, in fact, a Dutch citizen who was “born and raised in the Netherlands.” We don’t even know what his religion is.)

Trump retweeted them from Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First, a small fringe group whose profile was elevated by Trump’s attention. The group’s tweets read: “VIDEO: Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!” and “VIDEO: Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!” and “VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”

So, what is “Britain First”? It’s a “minor political movement” in the U.K. with an anti-Islam, anti-immigration platform. It has only about 1,000 supporters, according to the Guardian.

It is led by Paul Golding, 35, a former official in the now-defunct far-right British National party, and Jayda Fransen, 31, who was this month charged by police in Northern Ireland for hate speech at a rally outside Belfast City Hall in August. Fransen has previously been convicted for wearing a political uniform, under legislation instituted in 1936 to combat extremist groups such as the British Union of Fascists. She was also convicted for religiously aggravated harassment relating to a “Christian patrol” in which she took part in Luton. Fransen described that verdict as “Islamic appeasement”.

This isn’t just a “patriotic” group as it purports itself to be. It is an extremist group in itself, opposing not just Islamic fundamentalist violence (which would be understandable) but also the existence of mosques. The group actually wants halal meat banned in Britain.

Britain First also has ties to its own Christian religious fundamentalists.

A British anti-fascist campaign group, Hope Not Hate, says that the group was founded and initially funded by Jim Dowson, “a man dedicated to Calvinist chauvinism, religious bigotry and the raptures of evangelical and biblical Armageddon and doomsday prophecies”. It continues: “Though Dowson left the organisation in 2014, arguing that the group’s tactics of invading mosques was ‘provocative and counterproductive’, the group has maintained its Christian focus with crucifixes being displayed at BF demonstrations.”

Also, the terrorist who murdered Jo Cox, a member of Parliament, shouted “Britain First” while attacking her. Her husband said of Trump’s retweets today, “Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself.”

Trump has legitimised the far right in his own country, now he’s trying to do it in ours. Spreading hatred has consequences & the President should be ashamed of himself. — Brendan Cox (@MrBrendanCox) November 29, 2017

So to summarize, we have a president retweeting a convicted criminal who has called Islam “a cancer” and who works for a far-right hate group that doesn’t embody the ideals on which the United States was founded, and disregarding the 3.3 million Muslims currently living in the United States in order to reinforce his own bigoted agenda.

