From Swedish Attack To Bowling Green Massacre: Donald Trump Alternative Facts

The Swedish attack Donald Trump referenced yesterday, while having no basis in fact, is only one of a series of Trump alternative facts – like Kellyanne Conway’s Bowling Green Massacre – that the administration has presented us with in just its first month. As reported by The Associated Press, Trump spun his Swedish attack alternate reality in stark terms.

Donald Trump seems determined to bypass the media and present the American public with his own distorted version of truth by employing the administration’s patented alternative facts. This Bizarro World reality covers everything from climate change denial to the nonexistent Swedish attack Trump mentioned yesterday in Florida to justify his Muslim ban.

Adam Savage of MythBusters once jokingly said, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” Unfortunately, Trump’s rejection of reality is likely to have far more serious consequences than Savage’s clever quip.

Donald Trump’s Swedish Attack

The shocking Swedish attack Donald Trump mentioned came as a particular shock to Sweden and its citizens, who were left scratching their heads and wondering what Trump was talking about. There was no terrorist attack – of any scale – in Sweden the night before Trump’s speech.

The most newsworthy “Swedish attack” occurring in Sweden in recent months was a November attack on a Swedish Chef, who locals apparently thought bore a resemblance to Donald Trump. But again, mere reality didn’t stop Trump from presenting his alternative facts:

“You look at what’s happening. 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?”

Without breaking stride, Trump continued with his suggestion that his imaginary Swedish attack justified cracking down on Muslim immigrants into the United States:

“Sweden, they took in large numbers. They’re 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.”

Climate Change? What Climate Change?

If an invented Swedish attack isn’t enough, there’s always climate change denial. Despite the fact that the vast majority of scientists studying the issue believe that climate change is real and – more importantly – principally the result of human activity, Trump administration alternative facts suggest just the opposite.

As noted by CNN, this is probably one of the reasons the incoming Trump regime placed a ban on news and social media statements from federal agencies like NASA, the EPA and the National Park Service. After all, you wouldn’t want these scientists going off halfcocked and spouting their wild eyed theories based on empirical scientific studies. For the Trump administration, the invisible Swedish attack is far more real than NASA’s images of melting ice caps.

Trump Inauguration Size

Donald Trump has a profound interest in the size of things, from his hands to the upward thrusting Trump Tower – as an aside, Trump has actually exaggerated how many floors his building has. Given this Trumpian quirk, it’s surprising Trump didn’t refer to the mythical Swedish attack as “Yuge.”

And Trump’s fascination with – and apparent insecurities about – size extends to the number of people at his inauguration. As reported by WGN, Donald Trump literally can’t accept the fact that his inauguration crowd was smaller than either of Obama’s. Even worse, his inauguration was absolutely dwarfed by the Women’s March protests that took place later.

In fact, this was how the phrase “alternative facts” was birthed. Following press secretary Sean Spicer’s now infamous first White House news conference in which he flatly insisted that Trump’s crowd was huge and underreported by the media, Kellyanne Conway was the very next day forced to describe these seeming lies as “alternative facts.” So perhaps an imaginary “Swedish attack” was inevitable.

The Bowling Green Massacre

But that wasn’t the end of Conway’s contribution to the alternate reality Donald Trump has been constructing. Long before the Swedish attack, there was another nonexistent terrorist attack. On multiple occasions – proving that it wasn’t just a slip of the tongue – Conway referred to what she called the “Bowling Green Massacre,” which was apparently being outrageously ignored by the media.

Of course, one of the principal reasons the media was ignoring the Bowling Green Massacre – as they are now ignoring the horrors of the Swedish attack – is that no such attack actually occurred. But sadly, despite the undeniable real facts disproving the alternative facts being presented by the Trump administration, Trump supporters will probably be chanting about the Swedish attack at Trump’s next indoctrination rally.

[Featured Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]