Trump's Non-Existent Terror Attack in Sweden Based on TV Report

Catarina Axelsson, Sweden's foreign ministry spokeswoman, said the government wasn't aware of any terror-linked major incidents. She furthered the Swedish embassy in Washington contacted the State Department to request for clarification of Trump's remarks. In a tweet posted on Sunday, Trump said his statement regarding terror attacks in Sweden was based on a story that was broadcasted on TV.

Fox News, the U.S. channel cited favorably by Trump, was referring generally to rising crime and not a specific incident in Sweden. Notably, the Scandinavian country's crime rate dropped since 2005 even now as it has housed hundreds of thousands of immigrants from countries like Syria and Iraq, Reuters has learned. A Swedish Foreign Minister responded to Trump's non-existent terror attack saying that democracy and diplomacy require us to respect science, facts and the media.

Trump has had a share of widespread criticisms for making allegations with little or no supporting evidence. An instance was when he said 3 million people voted fraudulently in the U.S. election to which officials remarked its falsity noting that Trump won by a marginal vote in decades.