Trump cites false attack in Sweden
At rally, president tells Florida crowd about terror ‘happening last night’
President Donald Trump is taking ridicule for commenting this weekend on a terrorist attack in Sweden — because there wasn’t one.
“Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound,” tweeted former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, a frequent social-media antagonist of Trump.
In claiming a link between refugees and terrorism, Trump told a political rally in Melbourne, Florida, on Saturday: “You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden ... Sweden ... who would believe this? Sweden, they took in large numbers, they are having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels, you look at what’s happening all over the world.”
The Swedish embassy in Washington, D.C., asked the State Department for an explanation of Trump’s comments, Reuters reported.
Trump’s remarks drew ridicule in Sweden and the United States.
In Sweden, the Aftonbladet tabloid told Trump in an article Sunday that events in its country Friday included a man being treated for severe burns, an avalanche warning and police chasing a drunken driver.
Sweden Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Catarina Axelsson said the government wasn’t aware of any “terrorlinked major incidents.” Sweden’s Security Police said it had no reason to change the terror threat level.
“Nothing has occurred which would cause us to raise that level,” agency spokesman Karl Melin said.
Perhaps worth noting: Business Insider reported that Fox News ran a segment Friday night on violence in Sweden allegedly committed by refugees.
Trump’s critics included Chelsea Clinton. In a tweet, the daughter of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton cited an adviser’s recent mistaken claim of a terrorist “massacre” in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
“What happened in Sweden Friday night?” Clinton tweeted. “Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators?”