'Hypocrite' Trump to host White House Ramadan iftar

US President Donald Trump has turned heads after an announcement that he will be hosting the annual iftar at the White House.

Last year, in his first year of office, the President, famous for his inflammatory rhetoric against Muslims abandoned the tradition, sparking protests.

Some American Muslims saw Trump’s decision to not host the iftar and staged an iftar event outside of the Trump Tower in New York in response.

About 100 Muslims showed up for the event, organised by immigrant defence groups, with a similar number of non-Muslim supporters also attending.

Participants sat on the edge of the avenue after prayers and shared a meal that included rice, chicken and pizza.

Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York is home to the Trump Organisation, the heart of President Donald Trump's business empire.

This year, he will be hosting the annual iftar, due to take place on Wednesday.

Muslims expressed their discomfort at the turn of events, branding him as a hypocrite for deciding to host iftar this year whilst continuing to gush out Islamophobia.  

A Muslim civil rights group blasted Trump and his administration in April, saying his words and policies led to a sharp increase in attacks and bias against Muslims in 2017.

The number of reported anti-Muslim hate crimes and reported incidents of discrimination, bullying, harassment and other acts of anti-Muslim bias both jumped 15 percent last year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said.

The group blames the increase on the president, particularly his push to ban immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries. The ban now includes Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, along with non-Muslim North Korea and some Venezuelan officials. It originally also included Iraq.

"Trump's xenophobic rhetoric ... emboldened those who sought to express their anti-Muslim bias and provided a veneer of legitimacy to bigotry," the report said.