Donald trump has completed a month in office. Already embroiled with opposition and protests, his latest comments made on Sunday drew lots of confusion after falsely claiming an immigration-related security incident took place in Sweden, according to Reuters.
Since his inaugural address to become President of the United States (POTUS), Trump made it clear he would buffer immigration laws and impose tighter travel restrictions to the United States (U.S). But what has baffled the news media is the frequent usage of inaccurate claims as of fake news, which happened to mention Sweden.
"You look at what's happening last night in Sweden," Trump said. "Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible."
Since his arrival in the Oval Office, POTUS has remained in campaign-style mode. This recent claim came out of a rally in Florida. Trump added sharp criticism at current refugee policies in Europe and highlighted the continent´s failure to prevent previous terrorist attacks.
Be that as it may, Germany was also the target of these latest remarks made by POTUS. In addition, Sweden´s government requested from the U.S State Department to clarify on the incident, but later Trump posted a tweet about it.
“My Statement as to what´s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden,” Trump said on Twitter.
My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2017
This scuffle originated from a Friday Fox News report that indicated a rise in crime because of the increase in migrants into the country.
Conforming to a BBC analysis, the country saw an influx of asylum seekers in 2015 (more than 160,000).
The Swedish Crime Survey of 2016 confirmed that “concern about crime in society” dropped to 25 percent. Since the start of the survey in 2006, the overall crime rate has declined from 29 percent.
For the Trump administration, this isn’t the first time false claims have been made.
The Counselor to the POTUS, Kellyanne Conway, cited a nonexistent “Bowling Green massacre”, which led her to rectify to say “Bowling Green terrorists”.
A sense of polarization in the first month in office
Approximately one month later, one could characterize these series of events as unexpected and turbulent at times. It remains unclear whether these incidents are isolated or interconnected in some way.
At the present time, The Pew Research Center (PRC) published its newest survey on Trump´s performance for the first few weeks in office. His approval rating is at 39 percent and is much lower than previous presidents. The Trump administration needs to pivot in a different direction because the public perception remains skeptical.
The level of strong disapproval for Trump is unprecedented as indicated in the PRC survey. It even surpasses Barack Obama´s disapproval during his two terms in office as POTUS. However, George W. Bush disapproval rating was higher than Trump at the end of his Presidency in Dec. 2008.
It will be interesting to see if this ongoing pattern of false claims and allegations will become a new norm for this current administration.
