"When you look at what’s happening in Germany, when you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden — Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden! They took in large numbers, they’re having problems like they never thought possible."
If you go searching to find out exactly what the president was
talking about, spending some time on some alt-right or anti-Islam sites, there’s
a good amount of articles about Muslim migrants raping Swedish women at
outrageous rates.
For example, when looking at Breitbart News, they’ve
published many stories in recent years on the alleged migrant rape crisis in
Sweden, focusing on cities like Malmö with large Muslim immigrant populations. Representative
headlines include “Police warn of child rape epidemic in migrant-occupied
Malmo” and “Migrants jailed after woman abducted at gun point, gang-raped in
hookah bar basement.”
Canadian reporter Doug Saunders, researched and found out
that it “falls apart as soon as you speak to anyone knowledgeable in Sweden.”
Official Swedish statistics do indeed show a high rate of rape, but that’s
because Swedish law has an extremely expansive definition of what qualifies as
rape under the law. Sweden has a higher official rape rate, in short, because
its police are better able to investigate and prosecute sexual violence. So
while Trump’s “last night in Sweden” slip up is pretty funny, it’s likely
drawing on a pretty troubling narrative and the question now becomes is Trump
finding out that the job of being president is not for him? And that he clearly
cannot cope with expectations?
9 comments:
Trump later tweeted that he got this information about Sweden from a Fox News report the night before. The report talked about increased crime rates in Sweden but nothing about terror attacks. People knowledgeable of Sweden are confused as to where this came from. It has become public that Trump has decreased the amount of briefings he is getting to once a week, and it is showing. He is showing that he is not doing his homework and is only getting information from Fox News reports which is pretty wild.
As Ben discusses, the change in the President's news briefing is absolutely taking it's toll. Trump also seems to be missing the point when it comes to the refugees. If people don't want refugees traveling across Europe it would make more sense to stop the the conflict in the middle east so they don't have to seek refuge. This is over course more easily said then done. The same can be said for immigration in general, prevent some of the problems that cause immigration like job loss, low income, low health care and less people will want to immigrate. Diminishing some of the protectionist policies that Trump has in place has worldwide effects and can in fact improve the economic conditions in emigrant countries, thus diminishing the amount of immigrants seen coming to the USA.
I saw an article that mentioned that Melbourne, Florida, the area in which this rally took place, has a murder rate 50% larger than the entire country of Sweden. It seems as though his goals are skewed and that he should focus on issues that actually exist.
This was an interesting article. Ever since Trump made the comment, I've seen a lot of memes on social media about the situation, but this one really goes beyond the joke and explains the implications.
Like others, I'm not surprised that Trump made this error. Although, I genuinely thought the pre-election blunders were planned and he was just trying to bank votes, but now that he's elected and it still making the same blunderous statements, is just un-president like!
This article is comical but is also somewhat concerning. Sweden issued a response after this happened asking the U.S government to explain these false reports. It is comical because Trump often raves about fake news and how we should not always trust the media, yet he is the one issuing false reports. It seems as if the public has no where to turn because on one hand you have fake media reports coming through social media and on the other hand you have a president who is also producing fake news. I agree with Areena that it is unacceptable what Trump is doing and he has to buckle down if he wants anyone to take us seriously.
I agree with the comments above. Some people are taking this as a joke but it is a serious issue. Trump is misinforming people who actually believe what he is saying. We know that this is a mistake but coming from the president of the U.S is not acceptable. He needs to inform himself by reading the news and watching other news cast since Fox News isn't providing accurate information.
While I agree that it is comical, I also happen to think Rosa and Qasim make a fair point about the terrifying implications of our President's word. It illustrates the unusual approach Trump takes towards foreign policy and the selective media houses that he claims are the best news sources. Anyone, who criticizes or questions his authority is labelled as fake news and dishonest media. This is one of the signs of a consequential dictatorship. His administration as it is does nothing but cover up for his lack of knowledge about current affairs. It almost seems as if there are no checks and balances for the President in the white house. Those who get their news directly from the President himself and his administration are the ones getting exaggerated truths or as Trump would call it fake news. Sweden's statistics show no signs of a significant increase in crime rate from 2015-2016 with the influx of migrants. It does not show and correlation between crime rates and the percentage of refugees being let into the country. The Trump administration needs to be more careful of how they convey information to the American and more importantly that it is factually correct. If the Swedish president himself is declaring Trump's claims as exaggerations, the image of the United States government as a well informed and rounded institution may soon shatter. This inherently will pose the United States as weak.
I agree with the comments above, Trump is our president and he needs to watch what he says because there are people that out there that believed what he says and probably still don't know it was a mistake. he needs to get his news from more than jus tone source because things can be broadcasted wrong or in a way that is misleading.
Trump is surrounding himself only by ideas that agree with his beliefs already. It's scary to see the president discredit anything that disagrees with his world view but latches onto anything that aligns up with it. He preaches about fake news so often, and he cannot even see the irony behind his allegations.
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