When Max Karlsson found out that he was going to be in charge of Sweden’s official Twitter account this week, he was looking forward to sharing some of his photography, or riffing about music and technology — nothing too different from how hundreds of others have used the handle since Sweden opened it up to ordinary users in 2011.

“My thought was to speak about the interests and values that I have,” Karlsson, 22, said in a phone interview Monday evening. “And then Trump hit.”

Speaking at a campaign-like rally in Florida on Saturday, President Donald Trump once again claimed that European refugee policies have increased security risks, and he pointed to two countries as examples. “You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” the president said to his supporters. “Sweden, who would believe this?”

Not Sweden, apparently, because nothing serious actually happened on Friday — no terrorist attack, as Trump appeared to imply, and no real security scare. Trump later admitted that he was referring to a recent Fox News story about Sweden’s immigration policies, but that did little to quell the criticism — and ridicule — he has faced online.

Hey Don, this is @Sweden speaking! It's nice of you to care, really, but don't fall for the hype. Facts: We're ok! https://t.co/Vux6IjzOjO https://t.co/rEmO83DN1B — @sweden / Max (@sweden) February 20, 2017

On Twitter, former Prime Minister Carl Bildt wondered what Trump has been “smoking,” while other users posted more sarcastic takes — diagrams of an IKEA border wall, jokes about Eurovision, and Swedish Fish — under the hashtags #JeSuisIKEA and #lastnightinsweden. Some Trump supporters, meanwhile, claimed that there actually was an incident, and that the media was covering it up.

This wasn’t the environment Karlsson expected to face when he found out earlier this month that he had been selected to helm @Sweden. Since 2011, the country’s Twitter account has been managed by a different person every week, as part of an initiative called Curators of Sweden. The idea, according to the website, is to showcase the variety of experiences that people have had in Sweden, and to “create interest… for Sweden and everything the country has to offer.” Twitter users can be nominated for the position online, and the program is open to anyone living in Sweden or Swedes living abroad.

The account has been helmed by colorful and sometimes controversial personalities over the years, and some have used it to espouse political views or engage with trolls. But rarely has @Sweden received as much international attention as it did following Trump’s comments this week. Karlsson, who works as a paralegal in Stockholm, estimates that @Sweden’s follower count has increased by between 12,000 and 13,000 since Trump’s speech on Saturday.

“When Trump made that statement, I think the collective response over here was like: ‘he said what?’” Karlsson says.

During the time Sweden received 250.000 refugees, unemployment has fallen with 1,2%-points.https://t.co/aZkMfoeOUc — @sweden / Max (@sweden) February 20, 2017

Karlsson wasn’t at the helm of @Sweden when news of Trump’s comments first broke. That task fell to Emma Johansson, a school librarian, who on Sunday declaratively tweeted: “Nothing has happened here in Sweden,” adding that she had been “swamped with questions about Trump’s speech.”

A self-described “fire starter,” Karlsson spent some time addressing Trump’s comments after he took over the account Monday morning. In one “fact dump” thread, he linked to various statistics and news articles on Sweden’s declining unemployment rates and historically low murder rates, neither of which have significantly changed since the beginning of the refugee crisis. He opened his tenure at @Sweden by saying: “My name is @KarlssonMax and I like facts. This week, we’ll hopefully get down to what happened #lastnightinsweden.”

Karlsson says he’s faced some backlash from right-wing Twitter trolls, adding that they comprise about four out of every 10 replies he’s received from the @Sweden account. The Swedish Institute, which runs Curators of Sweden, added a code of conduct for the account’s followers last year, after curators reported a surge in racist and sexist abuse. As an extra precaution, the institute said that Twitter users who are blocked by one of @Sweden’s curators will remain blocked even after the account switches hands. (The organization previously unblocked all accounts before making the transition.)

“We have to know the facts to be able to discuss it properly.”

Karlsson says he went on a “mute spree” Monday, silencing between 20 and 30 users that posted threatening or hateful messages, though he says most responses to his tweets have been positive and encouraging. He’s also engaged with plenty of Trump supporters who seemed genuinely curious about whether the president’s portrayal of Sweden was accurate.

“A lot of Americans were asking ‘what the hell’s going on, can you give us clarity, can you help us out,’” Karlsson says. “And there was a lot of love, too.”

It’s unclear whether Trump’s imaginary terror attack will continue to dominate Karlsson’s Twitter mentions; “It all depends on what Trump says next,” he says. But he’s already prepared a series of other “fact dumps” for later this week, including links to interviews with refugees living in Sweden, and other statistics that debunk the idea that the country has become plagued with violence and crime since opening its borders to refugees. Sweden has received more than 270,000 applications for asylum since 2014, according to government figures cited by The New York Times, and it expects to receive between 25,000 and 45,000 applications this year. In 2015, the migration agency granted asylum to 77 percent of those who applied.

The effort is personal for Karlsson, as well. He says he was born and raised in a suburb outside Stockholm, “in those areas right wing media trolls are calling no-go zones, which is not accurate.” And although he acknowledges that Sweden is “facing challenges” with the refugee crisis, he says “we have to know the facts to be able to discuss it properly… that’s what I wanted to bring to this discussion.”

He doesn’t plan on keeping his @Sweden tenure too serious, though. By Monday afternoon he was tweeting about more anodyne things, such as his favorite video games and things to do in Stockholm. But he does feel lucky to share his perspective on Sweden at a moment when everyone is talking about it, surreal as it may be.

“I mean, it’s tragicomical that this is even happening, and that the leader of the free world is speaking this way about Sweden,” Karlsson says. “It’s like an episode of Seinfeld.”