President Donald Trump’s top public diplomacy chief has defended an openly racist stunt at a far-right event featuring white women in burkas being urged to strip on stage.
Sarah Rogers, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, celebrated the spectacle which was staged at Tommy Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally in central London on Saturday—a demonstration that drew an estimated 60,000 supporters waving Union Jacks and St. George’s Cross flags through Whitehall.
During one onstage “performance,” three white women in full Islamic veils were booed by the crowd, then urged supporters to chant “take it off, take it off,” before they disrobed to reveal dresses underneath and bellowed, “Hello London!”
Quote-tweeting a U.K.-based Muslim mother, who had branded the stunt “sickening,” Rogers wrote: “When people like this say they want to ban Islamophobic hate, they mean they want to ban European women from rebuking the burka.”
It’s not the first time Rogers has waded into U.K. and European far-right politics.
The Financial Times reported the former New York lawyer—and one-time National Rifle Association attorney—traveled through Europe meeting right-wing think-tanks and a lawmaker from Germany’s hard-right AfD party last December.
She has also been in discussions with Reform U.K., led by Farage, about tapping a State Department pot of cash to push the Trump administration’s brand of American ‘values’ across Europe.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, founded the anti-Islam English Defense League (EDL) and has previously served jail time for assault, mortgage fraud, and contempt of court.
The Daily Beast has contacted the State Department for comment.
