President Trump defended his tweeting in an interview with Piers Morgan that aired Sunday night in the UK. The two men are friendly, particularly after Morgan participated in and won the 2008 season of "The Celebrity Apprentice."
“Well, perhaps sometimes in bed and perhaps sometimes at breakfast or lunch or whatever," Trump told Morgan about his Twitter habits. "But generally speaking, during the early morning or during the evening, I can do that. But if I’m very busy during the day I’ll sometimes just dictate out something really quickly and I’ll give it to one of my people to put it on.”
Morgan asked Trump about one tweet in particular that has unnerved Brits. Last year, the president retweeted a picture from the group Britain First depicting Muslim violence. Formed in 2011, Britain First is described as a "far-right and British nationalist political party" that has anti-Muslim bias. They are reportedly infamous for conducting “Christian patrols” in Muslim neighborhoods.
Trump explained that he had no prior knowledge of the group. He just retweeted their photo because he is a “big believer in fighting radical Islamic terror.” Still, the retweet caused major headaches for the two nations as British lawmakers insisted Trump was no longer welcome in the nation. UK Prime Minister Theresa May even publicly condemned the tweet as "the wrong thing to do." All seemed to be forgiven at the Davos summit last week, when the two world leaders re-emphasized their special relationship.
Trump almost apologized for the tweet in his interview with Morgan - at least that's how NBC News described it.
“If you’re telling me these are horrible people, horrible racist people, I would certainly apologize if you’d like me to do that,” he told Morgan.
It satisfied the anchor, who thanked the president for his words.
Trump plans on visiting London in October. He'll likely be met with thousands of protesters.