If you’re like me, you check the news each morning with the worry that Donald Trump might have tweeted his way to the third world war. So in some ways, the fact that “all” he did this morning was to retweet the world-view of a far-right extremist from the organisation Britain First is something of a relief. At least we’re not waking to gifs of mushroom clouds over Korea. But that is to take false comfort. That shouldn’t be where we set the bar for the president of our closest ally.

It is fair to say that all of us who spend too much time on social media have probably retweeted people we might not be aware of, or who have dubious views on other issues. If this were a one-off, I might give President Trump the benefit of the doubt. But it’s not. Trump, from the beginning, throughout his campaign and since the election, has used hatred and bigotry to mobilise support.

No 10 condemns Trump's retweets of UK far-right leader’s anti-Muslim videos Read more

He’s done so from calling Mexicans rapists to pledging a ban on all Muslims entering the country, to failing to disavow the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. On Twitter he’s retweeted far-right activists following Charlottesville, shared antisemitic memes against Hillary Clinton and shared content from @WhiteGenocideTM – an account featuring dozens of racist memes.

In short, what his track record shows is that this isn’t a mistake, it’s a strategy. The impact of this strategy is to legitimise those driven by hatred. It makes them think that their views are mainstream, when in fact they are not – and makes those already driven by hatred more likely to act on it.

When the president of the United States promotes the deputy leader of a far-right organisation, it makes it easier for others to follow her example – and perhaps go further.

We know from the evidence that the environment matters for how and whether extremists act on their hatred. In more permissive environments they are more likely to take their hatred further, and where hatred is seen as socially unacceptable, they are less likely to act.

That’s why we rightly take on extreme Islamist propagandists advocating violence. It’s why we worry about hate preachers, even when they stop just this side of actually advocating violence. But those hate preachers aren’t only Islamists, they exist on the far right too.

In short, what his track record shows is that this isn’t a mistake, it’s a strategy

Britain First is one such group of hate preachers, in this case dedicated to driving hatred chiefly against the Muslim community of our country. It was Jayda Fransen, its deputy leader, whose tweets of inflammatory videos were conveyed by the president to his 43.6m Twitter followers. Fransen, as we know, as a figure more responsible than Trump would have found out, is facing charges of religiously aggravated harassment. We know how divisive that group has been, preying on vulnerable communities. We also know where that kind of poison can lead.

So what now? How do we respond to the most powerful man in the world becoming a purveyor of hate? Perhaps, in the UK, Trump brings opportunities that we should seize on. A recent world study by Pew found people united in disavowal of the president – for instance 75% of the British public had no confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, 89% saw him as arrogant and 69% saw him as dangerous. Even less than half of Ukip voters trusted him to do the right thing in global affairs.

Britain First: anti-Islam group that bills itself as a patriotic movement Read more

This strength of public sentiment is one of the reasons why the state visit is so strongly opposed, though sadly the government seems determined to push ahead with the invitation. The visit should not happen. If it does I am confident that the reaction he would receive would be in support of the true British values of tolerance and inclusiveness, values the president appears not to understand.

We should use the fact that Trump has become the poster-child for bigotry to our advantage. He may try to mobilise for the haters. But in fact he’s the best recruiting sergeant for those of us who wish to build a consensus around British values of tolerance and decency.

• Brendan Cox is the widower of former Labour MP Jo Cox and founder of More In Common