Donald Trump Continues To Defend Misleading Sweden Comment, Blames Fake News
Donald Trump continues to defend a misleading comment he made about Sweden on Saturday. Three times now, in less than 24 hours, President Trump has taken to his personal Twitter account to try to talk his way out of a confusing and “embarrassing” comment he made on Saturday during a Melbourne, Florida rally, where he referenced an event that allegedly took place on Friday night in Sweden.
In all three tweets, Donald Trump attempts to explain why he misspoke, about what Sweden interprets as a reference to a possible terrorist attack, but never once did he offer an apology or even acknowledge what he said was false and misleading. President Trump, does, however, blame his Sweden comment on what he calls the “fake news media.”
Salon reported last month that Donald Trump is never going to admit he’s wrong, especially not in front of everyone, a “character flaw” that even reportedly worries his aides. According to one anonymous insider, President Trump is unwilling to look bad by admitting he’s wrong, despite the fact that his own behavior often already makes him look bad.
Members of “Team Trump” reportedly have to try to “spin away” his behavior, and say that Donald Trump lets resentment against news media coverage pull away from his actual priorities. President Trump has attacked the news media consistently about what he calls reporting fake news, even before he was elected president.
The Daily Mail reports that Donald Trump and members of his administration are just as guilty of making false statements as the news media, citing Saturday’s comment about a terrorist attack that never happened in Sweden, as well as two other times the Trump administration has referenced “fictitious” terror attacks.
Donald Trump calls the fake news media the enemy of the American people, a move that’s potentially dangerous, as previously reported by Deseret News, back in October 2016. According to the report, Donald Trump claims the media poisons the minds of the American people by reporting false information, while Trump himself makes questionable statements, such as the Sweden comment he made on Saturday, that he’s now trying to blame on fake news.
Illinois Republican, Adam Kinzinger, calls President’s Trump recent comment, about a problem in Sweden that reportedly took place Friday night, “embarrassing,” adding that it “shouldn’t have been said,” according to the Washington Times. Donald Trump referenced “what’s happening last night in Sweden” during a campaign-style rally in Florida on Saturday, a reference that left the Swedish embassy, as well as the former Swedish prime minister, asking what President Trump was referring to.
Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound. https://t.co/XWgw8Fz7tj
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 19, 2017
President Trump made the misleading comment while talking about keeping America safe. Unfortunately, Donald Trump failed to specify what exactly did supposedly take place in Sweden on Friday night, raising questions in Sweden and on Twitter, where former Swedish prime minister, Carl Bildt, asked what Donald Trump had been smoking, according to CNN.
Donald Trump has taken to his own Twitter account several times since he made the Sweden comment on Saturday, attempting to explain his reference, saying that he was talking about a Fox News report he watched on Friday night. The report in question, that aired on Tucker Carlson’s show, talked about an alleged surge in crime that’s taken place in Sweden since the small European country began taking in refugees.
However, not everyone watched Friday night’s Fox News segment, so not everyone knew what Donald Trump was talking about, which led to massive confusion. Now, Donald Trump is tweeting that the fake news media is “trying to say that large-scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully,” when, in reality, the public, as well as the press, was simply unclear on what event in Sweden President Trump was referring to.
What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators?
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 19, 2017
According to PoliticusUSA, Fox News is even getting tired of Donald Trump calling everything fake news, adding that Fox News anchor Chris Wallace says President Trump’s attacks on the news media are “worse than anything that President Obama did with his media criticism.” The report goes on to say that President Trump attempts to delegitimize all free press that doesn’t agree with him.
The anonymous insider says that Donald Trump “gets bored and likes to watch TV” and tends to respond impulsively when he’s angered by criticism. Saturday’s Sweden comment in reference to a Fox News program on Friday night is proof of just how much President Trump watches TV, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says that there’s really only two things that Donald Trump needs to be doing between now and 2020, and watching TV isn’t one of those two things.
“He has to keep America safe and create a lot of jobs. That’s what he promised in his speech. If he does those two things, everything else is noise.”
[Featured Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
