Well, it seems that sometimes what one puts on Twitter may have real-world consequences.
At any rate it’s a lesson Donald Trump should learn (he probably won’t), after his much anticipated trip to the UK was cancelled following international outrage over him retweeting anti-Muslim propaganda from the Twitter account of a far right group called Britain First.
This activity drew some pretty sharp comments from the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, who – through her official spokesperson – categorised the US President’s actions on Twitter as ‘wrong’.
Never one to let things go – especially when he has his phone and Twitter account to hand – Trump slated May on the social media website, saying that she should have better things to do than criticise him for posting far right propaganda. I mean, the nerve! (He also originally directed his tweet at the wrong account, but hey, we’ve all done that haven’t we? All us world leaders?)
As has been mentioned, this has produced some diplomatic fall out. The US President was supposed to travel to the UK in January for the inauguration of the new US Embassy in London. However, a US diplomat has told The Daily Telegraph in London that this ‘working trip’ has basically been kicked into touch.
“The idea of a visit has obviously been floated, but not December and not January. I would not expect a Trump visit in January,” the senior US diplomat told the Telegraph.
No new date for this trip has been scheduled. It’s likely that all involved are hoping the outrage around Trump’s seeming endorsement of Britain First will die down first. In the meantime, we wait with some anticipation of Trump putting his foot in it soon on social media. Because you know, that’s what he does. That and play lots of golf.
