It’s a scene that has become infuriatingly familiar in the U.K. Donald Trump re-tweets something outrageous and unverified. Politicians line up to condemn him, but Trump doubles down, refusing to admit he’s wrong despite criticism from even the most ardent of right-wingers. All the while, Republican lawmakers stay silent about the embarrassment.
There’s an unexplored angle to Trump’s latest Twitter controversy. Trump began Tuesday morning by re-tweeting three Islamophobic (and inaccurate) videos from Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right extremist group Britain First. But by re-tweeting Fransen, Trump isn’t just spreading Islamophobia. He’s also promoting a group that has repeatedly held rallies in Northern Ireland and has ties to loyalist, sectarian groups in the region.
Britain First is contributing to destabilizing the security situation in Northern Ireland which, nearly 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement, remains precarious. Protestant loyalists, who want to remain part of the U.K., and Catholic republicans, who want to be part of Ireland are still acrimonious towards each other and live in segregated communities. In 2016, the Police Service of Northern Ireland dealt with roughly one bomb threat per week, and anti-terror raids are still a regularly feature of the Northern Irish landscape.
In the midst of this, Jayda Fransen’s group is advocating the type of paramilitary-style extremism that was responsible for decades of death and destruction in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles.”
The links between Britain First and sectarian loyalists can be first seen in 2013, when the group’s then-leader, Jim Dowson, was arrested by police in Northern Ireland for illegally protesting outside Belfast city hall, during a period of serious rioting, where dozens of police officers were injured. According to a report by the anti-fascism charity Hope Not Hate, “The PSNI were unequivocal that paramilitaries were behind the violence in Northern Ireland and Dowson has been front and centre.” Hope Not Hate adds that Dowson was inspired by the “uniforms and call to arms” of the Ulster Volunteer Force (U.V.F.), a paramilitary group which has been responsible for hundreds of murders in Northern Ireland since 1969.
Jayda Fransen also has ties to sectarian groups in Northern Ireland. In July, she was criticized for taking part in a loyalist march in Belfast on the same day as a republican march — the type of clash that, in Belfast, can all-too-often lead to rioting. Earlier in November, she was charged by the PSNI over alleged hate speech she made at a rally in Belfast in August, a rally again attended by hardline loyalists. Fransen has now appealed directly to Donald Trump to intervene in the case, as she faces up to two years in prison.
“In many ways Britain First is an ultranationalist group which believes ‘British Values’ must come above all else,” said Doug Beattie, a Northern Ireland Assembly member who served for 25 years in the British Army. “A lot of that has been picked up by loyalist groups in Northern Ireland, which in many cases have now evolved into far-right groups with the same ideology [as Britain First].”
“One of the big things we have here in Northern Ireland is identity politics,” he continued. “We have special arrangements for those who want to be British and those who want to be Irish, and symbols [commonly seen during marches and protests] are extremely important in that.”
Beattie says that by re-tweeting Britain First, Trump has waded into Northern Ireland’s divisive political landscape. “He’s diving into identity politics and it’s not healthy, we have enough trouble as it is without Trump taking sides,” he said. “If Trump had respect for the U.K. he’d understand he’s getting involved in really serious issues that Northern Ireland has had to deal with. It’s no the kind of thing friendly nations do.”
Beattie, for his part, described Trump as a “national embarrassment” who could “do with sticking on a uniform and going to fight with the people he decries.”
“He has no nuance,” he said. “He doesn’t understand how to face up to the stuff other people have been forced to face up to.”