THE US President’s “terrifying” apparent endorsement of far-right killings will embolden racists worldwide and must be confronted, anti-racists warned today (Tues).

Donald Trump suggested that the 17-year-old suspected of fatally shooting two Black Lives Matter protesters and injuring a third in Wisconsin last week acted in self-defence. 

Talking to reporters over the phone on Monday Mr Trump said that Kyle Rittenhouse, a self-styled vigilante illegally carrying an assault rifle, had been “violently attacked” by protesters. 

Labour MP Claudia Webbe described the president’s comments as “terrifying” and warned that the British government must take a stand against “racist authoritarian leaders around the world.” 

“It is horrifying to witness an armed white vigilante being respected as an honorary law-enforcement officer,” she told the Morning Star. 

“From armed militias in the US to Britain First in the UK, we are seeing the far-right international raise its ugly head once more. 

“Rather than follow the Trump playbook of demonisation and hate, our government must stand up to racist, authoritarian leaders across the world.

“It is up to all of us in the UK to send a loud and clear message: that the far right will not be tolerated and that their racist ideology shall not pass through our communities.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not commented on his US counterpart’s incendiary rhetoric in response to protests sparked by the shooting of black man Jacob Blake. 

Stand up to Racism co-convener Weyman Bennett warned that the rhetoric used by Mr Trump emboldens the far right across the world. 

“We shouldn’t forget that an MP was gunned down in the streets of Britain by the far right,” he said, in reference to Labour MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in 2016.

“These people will use these methods against a democratic society, especially if they are encouraged by people like the President of the United States who openly says that people who are fascists are fine people.”

Mr Bennett said the danger was even more intense now, given the Covid-induced economic crisis, which creates “perfect conditions” for the proliferation of the far right, as it did when the Great Depression led to the rise of Hitler and when Golden Dawn grew in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis in Greece. 

“We should learn from what happened with Golden Dawn, a criminal terrorist organisation in Greece, that the next crisis doesn’t produce even more monsters that have been fanned and grown because mainstream politicians dabble in the language of the far right. 

“We now have perfect conditions again for far-right politics to build, blaming refugees, anyone but the people responsible for mishandling the Covid crisis.”