The White House scrambled on Sunday to deflect a growing political row over Donald Trump’s equivocal condemnation of violence at a white supremacy rally, insisting his statement included “neo-Nazis and all extremist groups”.

However, the fresh spin will do little to counter growing criticism that the president was trying to shield white nationalists who helped propel him to power.

A day earlier protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, ended in tragedy when a car ploughed into a group of anti-racist counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal.

She was among a group rallying against members of the Ku Klux Klan and other hard Right organisations who gathered in protest at the city’s decision to remove a statue commemorating Robert Lee, a storied Civil War general who fought on the Confederate side.