US PRESIDENT Donald Trump appeared to legitimise race war after defending a 17-year-old white supremacist who shot dead two men in the Wisconsin town of Kenosha last week.

Mr Trump refused to condemn the killings and claimed that Kyle Rittenhouse had been acting in self-defence after opening fire at protesters, who gathered after police shot unarmed black man Jacob Blake seven times in the back.

 “That was an interesting situation,” he said during a Monday press conference.

“He [Rittenhouse] was trying to get away from them … it looks like, and he fell. And then they very violently attacked him. He was in very big trouble. He would have been — you probably would’ve been killed.”

The Trump supporter has been charged with two counts of homicide and other offences for killing Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum after he arrived at the demonstration with a semi-automatic rifle.

The US president defied pleas to stay away from Kenosha yesterday amid fears his presence would inflame the situation further.

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor Tony Evers appealed directly to Mr Trump, saying: “I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing. I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together.”

But the billionaire TV personality insisted on visiting law enforcement officers in the state, a key battleground in the forthcoming presidential election.

Mr Trump has continued to insist that the protests are fomented by troublemakers and “anarchists,” positioning himself as the “law-and-order candidate” ahead of November’s poll.

And he accused his Democratic Party rival for the White House of being a “radical socialist” who is siding with protesters in order to destabilise the US.

Mr Biden has shrugged off the allegations and denied that he supports rioting: “It’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted.”

But he said that Mr Trump, who is seeking his second presidential term, is incapable of uniting the country and bringing an end to the demonstrations that have spread across the US.

“He doesn’t want to shed light, he wants to generate heat, and he’s stoking violence in our cities. He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s fomented it,” Mr Biden said.

“Tonight, the president declined to rebuke violence. He wouldn’t even repudiate one of his supporters who is charged with murder because of his attacks on others. He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it.”