DONALD Trump's attack on Theresa May over tackling terrorism was about protecting Americans, the US ambassador to Britain has claimed, as he confirmed the President was expected to visit the UK early next year.

Woody Johnson argued that the whole transatlantic row over Mr Trump’s sharing of anti-Muslim videos online was probably misinterpreted.

He stressed how the President was not "namby-pamby" in his commitment to dealing with radical Islamist terror and would "take some chances" to achieve his goal.

Mr Johnson also made clear he still expected and hoped Mr Trump would visit the UK in 2018 despite the extraordinary diplomatic flare-up.

Asked if he was expecting Mr Trump to visit Britain in the New Year, he replied: "Absolutely. He will come. I hope he will come."

It is thought the President will travel to London to open officially the new US embassy in Nine Elms, a mile from Westminster.

The Stop Trump protest group is planning a mass demonstration outside the embassy and Downing Street to coincide with the President’s visit, supposedly pencilled in for February 26 and 27. The organisers hope it will be the “biggest demonstration in British history”.

Asked if the Prime Minister was looking forward to receiving Mr Trump in February, her spokesman told a daily No 10 Lobby briefing: “There are two issues here. There is obviously the issue of a state visit; you all know the position: an invitation has been extended and accepted and we will set out more details in due course.

“The ambassador was this morning referring to the matter of a working visit in relation to opening the US embassy; I don’t have anything confirmed on that to share with you.”

Labour’s Stella Creasy called for the President's trip to be cancelled and said she would protest against his visit if it went ahead by wearing "shocking pink" in solidarity with women's marches in the US.

This, explained the London MP, would “show my support for the women's march and recognising that, for goodness sake, this country wouldn't let Martha Stewart in because we said it wasn't conducive to the public good.

"What does Donald Trump have to do? How much damage does he have to do to security, to tension in our communities before our Prime Minister says actually the special relationship means enough for us to say 'not now'?"

Her Labour colleague Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, said: "I have previously called on Theresa May to cancel her ill-judged offer of a state visit to President Trump.

"After the latest incident - where President Trump used Twitter to promote a vile, extremist group that exists solely to sow division and hatred in our country - it is clear that any official visit here would not be welcomed.

"London is a beacon of diversity. It is one of our strengths. Many of us love America and Americans but President Trump has on a number of occasions shown his views are inconsistent with the values Londoners hold dear."

Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: "Donald Trump's reckless actions are making the world less safe and setting back global action on climate change.

"When he comes to Britain, people will make their views known on these issues and show him we are a diverse and inclusive society," added the Labour leader.

Last month, Mrs May rebuked Mr Trump for retweeting a series of inflammatory anti-Muslim videos originally posted online by the deputy leader of the far right Britain First group.

When he hit back in a trademark tweet telling the PM to "focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism" in the UK, he sparked an outcry from MPs, who demanded an apology and a cancellation of his planned state visit.

Discussing the row, Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "A lot of that stuff was probably misinterpreted.

“The way I would look at it and the way he looks at it is: security is his number one oath when he took the oath of office; it's protecting Americans, it's protecting Americans here and the US, that's number one and that's my number one as well. And so if you look at the context of that, that's what he's trying to do.

"Is he perfect and appeasing everybody?"

He went on: "Going back to his true feelings and what he's trying to accomplish, he wants to protect Americans and he's doing his best to do that, he's not going to go down the path of a lot of politicians and maybe be namby-pamby about it.

"I mean he's going to come out, he's going to probably take some chances in an effort to do that, to accomplish that security goal.

"Maybe he'll ruffle feathers, there's no question that maybe some feathers were ruffled with that," added the ambassador.