President Donald Trump raised more than a few eyebrows and earned some pretty sarcastic comments after he suggested that a terrorist attack had taken place in Sweden. The remarks were made during a rally in Florida and left some Swedish officials scratching their heads. The president is now clarifying his remarks.
According to a report from the 9 News Australia, the president was citing a news report he had seen being broadcasted on Fox News. Sarah Sanders, the principal deputy press secretary for the White House, said that Trump was referring to the "rising crime and recent incidents in general and not a specific incident."
The president also posted on his Twitter account to explain the train of thought that he had when he made those remarks. "My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants in Sweden", the tweet said.
The clarifications were made after the Swedish Embassy in Washington contacted the State Department last Sunday to ask what Trump was talking about in his speech. One particular person who questioned the motivation behind Trump's comments is Carl Bildt, the former Swedish Foreign Minister. "Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound", Bildt said in a tweet.
Sweden has a reputation of welcoming migrants and refugees, and also had a record 163,000 asylum applications in 2015 alone. It has since cut back on the number of applications it accepts every year. The most recent attack in Sweden that was linked to extremism was in December 2010 when an Iraqi-born Swede detonated a couple of explosive devices in Stockholm. One of the devices ended up killing the attacker, but fortunately no one else was killed in the incident.
At the rally, President Trump told his supporters to look at the recent attack in Germany where 12 people were killed after being run over by a truck driven by a failed asylum seeker at the Berlin Christmas Market in December 2016. He also mentioned Nice, Paris, and Brussels in an apparent reference to the terrorist attacks that occurred there. When he made a comment about Sweden, Trump did not mention any specific events. He simply said "Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
