Donald Trump (sort of) admits the ‘terror attack in Sweden’ was something he misheard on Fox News
The people of Sweden were caught off guard yesterday when Donald Trump referred to a terrorist attack that had taken place in Sweden the night before, when no such attack had taken place. During his speech at a strangely pointless rally in Florida, Trump began listed off recent terrorist attacks around the world, and in the middle of it he threw in the line “look at what’s happening last night in Sweden.” But after the government of Sweden pointed out that nothing happened there at all, Trump (sort of) admitted today that it was just something he misheard while watching Fox News last night.
Trump endured a full day of humiliation for having invented yet another imaginary terrorist attack to go along with his administration’s phony Bowling Green Massacre. All day today, “Last Night in Sweden” has been a top-ten trending topic on Twitter, as users make fun of him over the matter. Even the Swedish Foreign Ministry wants answers. And so Trump put out a tweet today in which he tried to explain it all away, but probably made it even worse for himself.
As many had come to suspect, Donald Trump admitted today in a tweet that he had merely heard something about it on Fox News last night: “My statement as to what’s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.” But here’s the kicker: Trump had been clearly insisting that a terrorist attack had taken place in Sweden last night. So at best, he misheard or misunderstood the Fox News segment in question.
Equally distressing is the fact that the Fox News segment was little more than unfounded racist babble. Tucker Carlson allowed a guest to ramble on about an unfounded conspiracy theory in which Sweden was supposedly covering up rapes being committed by immigrants for no apparent reason.
It was precisely the kind of racist fiction that quasi-fake news networks like Fox News like to broadcast in order to scare white moderates into fearing immigrants. And yet not only did Donald Trump think it was true, he somehow misunderstood the story and came away believing that there had been a terrorist attack in Sweden last night. And then, instead of checking with his own intelligence and security experts to find out about this supposed attack, he just threw it into his speech. It’s difficult to frame this sequence of events without invoking the word “senility” in the process. Impeach Trump Now • Contribute to Palmer Report
