AP Photo/Nathan Strange
- Donald Trump shares the tweets of British commentator Katie Hopkins.
- The president’s retweets have made Hopkins one of his most visible cheerleaders when it comes to his views on issues like immigration, minorities, and crime — both in the US and the UK.
- Hopkins is now a regular political pundit on US television.
- But in Britain she is a marginal figure who has lost media jobs because of her extreme views.
- She compared migrants to cockroaches and lost a major radio job after saying there should be a "final solution" following a terrorist attack in the UK.
- She once claimed to be "the new Jesus."
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
If you don’t live in the United Kingdom, your first encounter with British commentator Katie Hopkins will probably have been via President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.
Thanks to Trump’s retweets, Hopkins has become one of president’s most visible cheerleaders.
Last week, Trump shared a Hopkins’ tweet which described the US city of Baltimore as a "s***hole"
Baltimore is represented by Elijah Cummings, a congressman who Trump said represented a "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess" where "no human being would want to live."
The president has a history of promoting Hopkins on Twitter — before and during his presidency.
In June, Trump shared a Hopkins tweet which criticised one of his favourite targets — London Mayor Sadiq Khan — and his handling of crime in London. Hopkins described the English capital as "Khan’s Londonistan."
In 2015, nearly a year before he was elected president, Trump tweeted praise for Hopkins’ "powerful writing on the U.K’s Muslim problems." He described her as a "respected columnist."
However, in the UK, Hopkins is not regarded as a respected pundit. She is not a regular guest on mainstream TV channels like she is on Fox News in the US. Rather, Hopkins is widely seen as someone whose far-right views on issues like immigration and class have pushed her to the margins of political debate. She was let go from two media jobs — including for a leading right-wing media organisation — following her tweets about a terrorist attack in Manchester.
Her strange and eventful career began when she was a contestant on one of the country’s most popular reality TV shows over a decade ago, before she rebranded herself as "Britain’s most controversial columnist."
Over the years she has compared migrants to cockroaches, called for refugee boats to be sunk by gunships, and suggested that there should be a "final solution" to Islamic terrorism in the West.
Here’s what you need to know about Hopkins.
March 2007: Her life in the spotlight began on The Apprentice.
Ian West – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
Hopkins first introduced herself to the British public in 2007 as a contestant in the UK version of the reality TV show, The Apprentice. Coincidentally, it was the same TV show that Trump starred in before beginning his career in politics.
Lord Alan Sugar — the billionaire businessman who candidates seek to impress in the UK version of the show — offered Hopkins a place in the final. However, she turned it down, as she could not commit to living in London.
July 2013: ‘Do I want my children to play with them?’
YouTube
Hopkins’ first major controversy came in 2013, when the then-Daily Mail columnist appeared as a guest on ITV show, This Morning.
She told the show that she judged which kids were suitable for her children to play with by their names, and linked names of children to social class.
"I think you can tell a great deal from a name," she told hosts Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.
"For me, a name is a shortcut of finding out what class a child comes from and makes me ask: Do I want my children to play with them?"
"When I hear screeched across the playground: ‘Tyler! Come back ‘ere.’ It’s the Tylers, the Charmains, the Chantelles, the Chardonnays’."
She also said she dislikes it when children have the same names as places.
Schofield later pointed out that one of her children was called India.
July 2013: She doesn’t like ginger-haired babies.
Ian West – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
Hopkins’ controversial remarks — often publicised on social media — led her to quickly become one of the UK’s most contentious figures on screen and in print.
In July 2013, she tweeted that babies with red hair were "much harder to love" than other babies.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – apayne@businessinsider.com (Adam Payne)