It Doesn’t Matter If The Anti-Muslim Videos Trump Retweeted Are Real Because ‘The Threat Is Real’

Hours after Donald Trump retweeted several apparently fake anti-Muslim videos posted online by Jayda Fransen of Britain First, a British far-right group of ill repute, White House reporters tried vehemently to get an official response from the administration. For his part, the president left the retweets in question up on his Twitter account (where they remain as of this writing), prompting a flurry of support from Fransen and other Britain First members online. But what did the White House itself have to say about Trump’s apparent endorsement of the organization’s anti-Muslim beliefs?

According to Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who briefly spoke with reporters outside of the White House, the videos themselves don’t matter. Specifically, the “nature” of the videos — their being allegedly fake — does not matter. Why? Because that isn’t what the president was trying to talk about when he retweeted them:

“I’m not talking about the nature of the video. I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing. The threat is real, and that’s what the president is talking about. The need for national security, the need for military spending, and those are very real things. There’s nothing fake about that.”

When another reporter suggested Sanders, and Trump by extension, was implying the “means justify the ends,” the press secretary snapped back. “That’s not what I said. You’re putting words in my mouth,” she said. “I said that the threat is real. The threat needs to be addressed. The threat has to be talked about. That’s what the president is doing in bringing it up.”