Trump cites dubious story about Muslims in apparent comment on Barcelona attack

David Jackson | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption The real story behind Donald Trump's pig's blood slander Donald Trump recently told crowds a story about U.S. Gen. John Pershing executing Muslim insurgents with bullets dipped in pig's blood. It's a gruesome story, and it is also not true.

In an apparent response to the Barcelona terrorist attack on Thursday, President Trump cited an apocryphal story about turn-of-the-20th-century American Gen. John Pershing – and missed its context.

"Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught," Trump tweeted shortly after condemning the attack in Spain. "There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!"

Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017

Trump, following up on another tweet condemning the attack in Barcelona, was referring to a story he told on the campaign trail, a legend that began after Pershing served as governor of a heavily Muslim province in the Philippines from 1909 to 1913.

"He caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people," Trump said during a rally in Charleston, S.C., in February of 2016:

"And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pigs’ blood ... And he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem."

Yet there's no evidence this ever happened, and Pershing certainly didn't stop violence in the Philippines.

Historians have found only a single letter from a soldier who said Pershing had a local chieftan buried with a bloody pig, a claim written decades after the alleged incident. A memoir by Pershing cited a letter from another U.S. officer who said several Filipinos were buried in a grave with a bloody pig.

"Of the eight historians we checked with, all were at least skeptical that what Trump said actually happened, and some expressed disbelief even more forcefully than that," reported the Politifact website in 2016.

In any event, Pershing's administration did not end attacks by Filipinos who opposed U.S. occupation in the wake of the Spanish-American War.

"The historians took issue with Trump’s suggestion that the tactic – if it was even used at all – actually worked to end tensions, noting that unrest persisted for years," Politifact said. "In all, Trump’s claim is ridiculous, so we rate it Pants on Fire."