First, an aide to U.S. President Donald Trump raised the spectre of the Bowling Green massacre — a tragic attack that never actually took place.
Then, at a rally in Florida on Saturday, Trump talked about the need for his travel ban by mentioning terror attacks in Europe — and talked about something that allegedly happened in Sweden the night before.
READ MORE: Trump says bizarre Sweden remark referred to something he saw on Fox News
There was just one problem — nothing happened in Sweden that night. Nothing approaching a terrorist attack, anyway.
Trump later clarified that he was talking about the impacts of immigration on the Scandinavian country.
But that didn’t stop Late Show host Stephen Colbert from relentlessly mocking the president on Monday night.
Colbert took Trump to task in a segment titled “Never Fjorget What Happened in Sweden.”
In it, Colbert noted that the Fox News program Trump saw linked an increase in Swedish criminal incidents to refugees and immigrants.
There’s just one thing — Sweden’s crime rate has been falling since 2005.
“In fact, experts say 90 per cent of Swedish crime actually occurs in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Colbert said.
(Trump’s remarks have since been linked to a controversial documentary titled Stockholm Syndrome, which alleges that rape and murder have proliferated in Sweden due to its immigration policies — an idea that has been largely debunked).
Colbert then issued a sombre tribute to everyone who did not suffer in Sweden’s phantom incident just a few nights ago.
“Just because this attack didn’t happen folks, doesn’t mean we don’t stand in solidarity with all the people that did not suffer. And we pay tribute to all of them now,” he said.
Like the Swedish chef from the Muppets. And other famous figures from the country who didn’t, apparently, endure anything at all.
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