The White House defended President Donald Trump after he made an offensive gesture toward a heckler during an appearance at a Ford plant in Detroit on Tuesday.

Video of the incident Posted by TMZ Trump appears to be shown responding to a man yelling at him from a distance.

“A madman screamed and cursed in a rage, and the president responded appropriately and clearly,” the White House said.

The United Auto Workers told BBC US partner CBS News that the heckler had been suspended from his job by Ford. Two separate GoFundMe pages had raised almost $700,000 (£521,000) for him from more than 27,000 donors in the 24 hours after the incident.

A Ford spokesperson told CBS: “One of our core values ​​is respect, and we will not tolerate inappropriate comments like this from anyone at our facilities.

“We have a process to deal with it when this happens, but we don’t get into specific personnel matters.”

According to subtitles provided by TMZ, the heckler called Trump a “pedophile protector.”

In the video, which captures Trump from a distance, the president can be seen snapping back at the heckler, allegedly swearing and making a middle-finger gesture.

A man named TJ Sabula said in an interview with the Washington Post that he was the one who shouted. He said he had “no regrets” about what he had done.

Sabra reportedly said his comments were in reference to Trump’s handling of Epstein documents.

Trump is facing pressure to be more transparent about the findings of the federal investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump signed a law forcing the Department of Justice (DoJ) to release all documents it holds on Epstein by December 19, although only a fraction of the documents have been made public so far.

Trump was friends with Epstein before they fell out, which Trump said was years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing with Epstein.

The UAW, the union that represents Sabra, defended his actions, saying: “He believed in free speech, a principle we wholeheartedly embrace, and we stand with our members to protect their voices on the job.”

Trump delivers a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit on Tuesday.

The president’s public use of profanity has generated headlines in the past — for example, last June when discussing relations between Iran and Israel.

His predecessor, Joe Biden, also sparked controversy during the campaign ahead of his 2020 presidential election when he used an expletive during a conversation with a worker during a visit to a Detroit factory.