Trump repeats phony pig's blood story at rally

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ...

At an Orange County rally Thursday, Donald Trump repeated a bogus yarn about executing Muslim prisoners with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.

In the aftermath of the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, Trump said Gen. "Black Jack" Pershing had 49 Muslims shot and killed with bullets dripping with porcine blood, which Muslims consider filthy and unholy. Muslims are forbidden from ingesting pork.

Trump said that Pershing told a 50th Muslim, "Take this bullet and bring it back to all of the people causing the problem. And for 42 years they didn't have a problem."

The problem with this "teach the Muslims a lesson" tale is that it never happened. Pershing never presided over a mass execution of Muslim terrorists or any other religious zealots.

"This story is a fabrication and has long been discredited," Brian McAllister Linn, a Texas A&M University historian and author of Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940, told Politifact. "I am amazed it is still making the rounds."

The debunking site Snopes has also declared the story a fiction.

Andreas Dixon of Costa Mesa, an anti-Trump supporter, confronts a Trump supporter at The Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Thursday, April 28, 2016. (Kyusung Gong/The Orange County Register via AP) less Andreas Dixon of Costa Mesa, an anti-Trump supporter, confronts a Trump supporter at The Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Thursday, April 28, 2016. (Kyusung Gong/The Orange County Register via ... more Photo: Kyusung Gong, AP Photo: Kyusung Gong, AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Trump repeats phony pig's blood story at rally 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Thursday's rally in Costa Mesa, Calif., was not the first place Trump has recited the phony pigs' blood story. He also told it during a rally in South Carolina in February.

When he has been caught in a lie in the past, Trump has shrugged off criticism, saying he does not have time to check the accuracy of all the information he receives.

And he apparently has no qualms about repeating the lie, even after he's been called out.