Far-right activist Tommy Robinson has been hosted by an official from the Trump administration as he visited Washington DC.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon met Joe Rittenhouse, an adviser at the US State Department, and Randy Fine, a Republican congressman.
His visit to the US comes despite a reported travel ban and tough border controls on travellers with criminal convictions.
“In America making alliances & friendships, today I had the privilege of an invite to the @StateDept,” Robinson, 42, said in a post on X.
The activist has become one of Britain’s most high-profile anti-migration campaigners, organising a rally last September in London attended by about 150,000 people.
His visit appears to be the latest example of the Trump administration’s promotion of “free speech” in Europe.
In 2018 Robinson was denied a US visa when he was invited to speak in the country for an event.
The i Paper previously reported it was understood he had been banned from flying to the US due to multiple criminal convictions and a failed attempt to enter the country using a friend’s passport in 2012.
Rittenhouse, who is a senior adviser for the department’s Consular Affairs bureau, met with Robinson, calling him a “free speech warrior.”
“Honored 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!” Rittenhouse said in an X post.
In the photographs that Rittenhouse posted on X, Robinson can be seen examining the objects in the Department’s John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room, one of the department’s diplomatic reception rooms, which features collections and masterpieces from the federal era.
Robinson visited the State Department “in an unofficial capacity on a tour today,” a department spokesperson told the Reuters news agency, but did not provide answers to questions on who else Robinson met with, what was discussed and what the objective his visit was.
Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman told The National: “The idea that figures like Robinson are being treated as legitimate political actors by what are supposed to be our international allies should concern us all.”
Robinson later posted on social media that he had also met Jack Posobiec, a Maga influencer and “close friend of Charlie Kirk”.
According to his post, Robinson’s next stop will be Florida, but it is unclear who he is meeting. In a video he denied planning to trying to meet Trump or anyone connected with him, saying he was “travelling around meeting people making friends”.
The Trump administration has been critical of the UK over free speech issues.
In the State Department’s 2024 human rights report, which was a narrower and re-purposed version of the annual publication following amendments by Trump officials, Washington criticized the UK saying the human rights situation in the country worsened.
It said there were credible reports of “serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or ‌civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism.”
US officials have also engaged with far-right parties in Europe they see as targeted by online rules, arguing legitimate anti-immigration views are censored in the name of preventing hate speech.
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They have also denounced European Union policies that they say are suppressing right-wing politicians, including â in Romania, Germany and France, and have claimed rules like the EU’s Digital Services Act and Britain’s Online Safety Act limit free speech.
Robinson is the founder of the English Defence League,or EDL, which in the past has staged violent demonstrations against Islam.
He was jailed by British authorities in 2013 for using a passport in someone else’s name to travel to the United States from Britain.
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