CNN airs footage from London protests to fact-check Trump’s ‘fake news’ claim

CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Tuesday aired footage from large protests at London’s Trafalgar Square to “fact check” President Trump’s claim that the protests were “fake news.”

Trump dismissed the protests surrounding his state visit to the United Kingdom this week while speaking during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday.

Sciutto responded by showing video of the massive demonstration, which included a large robot depicting Trump tweeting on his cell phone while sitting on the toilet.{mosads}

“Let’s just show you some video of the protests taking place right now at Trafalgar Square,” Sciutto said. “That, uh, effigy, I suppose you could call it, of President Trump there tweeting, not only there in Trafalgar Square, where they appear to be fairly well attended, but there were some boos against the president as he entered the press conference.”

“So, the president claimed the protests were fake news; there they are for your own eyes to see,” he remarked.

Multiple outlets in London have reported that as many as 250,000 people may attend protests scheduled for Tuesday, with many gathering in Trafalgar Square.

CBS News reported that London’s Metropolitan Police have not provide official estimates of attendance at the protests.

Trump has spent the vast majority of his time in central London with police escorts and more than 10,000 police officers are reportedly on hand during the president’s three-day stay in the country.

Trump said during the Tuesday press conference that he’d only seen “thousands of people” cheering during his visit thus far, as well as a “small protest.”

“So a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say,” he said. 

“It was tremendous spirit and love,” he said of the crowds. “There was great love. It was an alliance. And I didn’t see the protesters until just a little while ago, and it was a very small group of people put in for political reasons. So it was fake news.”

Trump is deeply unpopular in the United Kingdom, with a favorability rating of 21 percent, according to a YouGov U.K. survey of data collected through April of this year.

A British activist group on Monday projected the country’s approval ratings for Trump and for former President Obama on the Tower of London.

The Times reported Saturday that police chiefs in Britain are expected to spend 25 million pounds, or roughly $31.6 million, on security costs related to the president’s visit.