



At a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday, incredibly Kellyanne Conway recently made repeated references to a “massacre” at Bowling Green that never actually happened. Sean Spicer similarly pointed several times to a terrorist attack in Atlanta that didn’t occur. So perhaps it was inevitable that Donald Trump, fresh off his bizarre claims about U.S. murder rates that exist only in his imagination, would point to a Swedish incident with no basis in reality.At a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday, incredibly the first official event of the 2020 presidential election cycle, the Republican president told a group of supporters:

“Here’s the bottom line. We’ve got to keep our country safe. 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? Sweden.”





If it makes Sweden feel any better, many Americans often have no idea what Trump is saying, either.



But the events “last night in Sweden” were really just the tip of a truly ridiculous iceberg. The president, speaking to a



“When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away with it,” he declared. Trump was less clear on what’s supposed to happen when



But arguably more interesting than the speech itself – which was really more of a retread of stale rhetoric held over from 2016 – was the fact that this rally was scheduled in the first place.



It’s likely that no one would believe this because there were no security incidents in Sweden on Friday night. In fact, Swedish officials, asked what in the world the U.S. president might have been referring to, seemed baffled . (The bizarre comments were the result of something Trump saw on Fox News the night before. If only he had some federal agencies that might help keep him informed about international events, the president might be better informed. Oh wait, he does.)If it makes Sweden feel any better, many Americans often have no idea what Trump is saying, either.But the events “last night in Sweden” were really just the tip of a truly ridiculous iceberg. The president, speaking to a smaller-than-expected crowd – I assume the White House will soon insist it was the largest campaign rally in the history of Western civilization – seemed eager to paint a picture of an alternate reality in which the Obama administration did no vetting of refugees; the Trump White House is “running so smoothly”; and he “inherited one big mess.”“When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away with it,” he declared. Trump was less clear on what’s supposed to happen when he lies to people, even while reading from his trusted Teleprompter.But arguably more interesting than the speech itself – which was really more of a retread of stale rhetoric held over from 2016 – was the fact that this rally was scheduled in the first place.