Trump tries to shift debate on Sweden
WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump kept his curious comments about Sweden in the spotlight for another day, taking to Twitter on Monday to try to shift the debate to what he says is the impact of “large-scale” immigration in the Scandinavian country instead of the non-existent terrorist attack he claimed happened.
During a rally Saturday in Florida as he was speaking about past terror attacks, Trump said, “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”
After a slew of news stories speculating that Trump had made a mistake — in Sweden, the remark raised eyebrows and sparked derision about a fact-challenged president — the president said on Twitter on Sunday that he had been referring to a segment on Fox News on Friday about “immigrants & Sweden.”
The president was seemingly referring to a Tucker Carlson interview with Ami Horowitz, a filmmaker who has blamed refugees for a purported crime wave in Sweden and alleged that authorities are trying to cover up the incidents.
Instead of leaving it at that, Trump returned to the subject on Monday, trying to channel the conversation away from whether he misspoke. Tweeting from Florida, where he named Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser, replacing the ousted Michael Flynn, Trump said that media reports that are at odds with Horowitz’s conclusions are “fake news.”
“Give the public a break — The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!”
Those disputing Horowitz’s conclusions include two Stockholm-based police officers who were featured in Horowitz’s film talking about crime and the accessibility of weapons.
“I don’t understand why we are part of the segment,” one of the police officers, Anders Göranzon, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper on Monday. “The interview was about something completely different to what Fox News and Horowitz were talking about. It was supposed to be about crime in high-risk areas. Areas with high crime rates. There wasn’t any focus on migration or immigration.”
The influx of refugees has not come without problems in Sweden, but mainstream politicians and immigration experts say the criticism has been disproportionate. In 2016, Swedish embassies were tasked to counter false information about Sweden’s experience with taking in large numbers of immigrants.