Robinson is notorious in the UK where he has been accused of promoting hatred against Muslims and organising mass anti-migrant protests.<\/p>\n
British far-right activist Tommy Robinson says he visited the United States Department of State as part of a recent trip to Washington, DC, where he was welcomed by government officials and supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn America making alliances & friendships, today I had the privilege of an invite to the @StateDept,\u201d Robinson posted on X on Wednesday, alongside a photo of himself next to a US flag.<\/p>\n
Robinson is a household name in the UK, notorious for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and multiple prison terms. He was also a cofounder of the now-defunct far-right English Defence League \u2013 a street protest movement.<\/p>\n
US State Department official Joe Rittenhouse, who is a senior adviser for the department\u2019s Consular Affairs bureau, said he met with Robinson, calling him a \u201cfree speech warrior\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonored to have free speech warrior @TRobinsonNewEra at Department of State today. The World and the West is a better place when we fight for freedom of speech and no one has been on the front lines more than Tommy. Good to see you my friend!\u201d Rittenhouse said in an X post.<\/p>\n
Rittenhouse posted photos of what appeared to be Robinson touring the State Department.<\/p>\n
The State Department did not answer questions from the Reuters news agency on who else Robinson met, what was discussed and what the objective of his visit was.<\/p>\n
A representative for the United Kingdom\u2019s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.<\/p>\n
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has become an icon for British nationalists and one of the UK\u2019s most high-profile anti-migration campaigners, organising a large rally last September in London attended by about 150,000 people.<\/p>\n
Social media posts show that during his trip to Washington, Robinson also met far-right US influencer Jack Posobiec and filmed a video with Congressman Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, who has a history of anti-Muslim rhetoric. Robinson said on X that he will next travel to Florida.<\/p>\n
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Robinson\u2019s visit to the US State Department follows a surge in support from the administration of President Donald Trump for far-right activists in the UK and Europe under the pretext of protecting \u201cfree speech\u201d.<\/p>\n
In December, the Trump administration accused Europe of engaging in \u201ccivilisational erasure\u201d due to demographic and cultural changes from what Washington has described as weak immigration policies.<\/p>\n
US Vice President JD Vance took aim at European countries during his first international trip last year, accusing the region\u2019s leaders of stifling free speech \u2013 particularly voices from the far right \u2013 and being lax on migration to the detriment of their societies.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,\u201d Vance said in remarks that shocked European leaders.<\/p>\n
The UK and European countries have stronger rules on hate speech than the US, and the European Union has taken a proactive stance on regulating social media and internet content \u2013 positions that have angered the White House.<\/p>\n
Robinson was banned from Twitter in 2018, but his account was restored in 2022 following its acquisition by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Robinson is notorious in the UK where he has been accused of promoting hatred against Muslims and organising mass anti-migrant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}