Amid the chaos surrounding a terror attack in the tourist district in Barcelona, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to promote a false story about a general who fought radical Islamic terrorism.
On Thursday, a car rammed into a crowd of tourists, killing 13 people and injuring around 100 others at Las Ramblas, a pedestrian mall and popular tourist destination. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to their Amaq news agency.
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After condemning the attack, Trump took to Twitter to tell people to “study” the actions of a U.S. General after the Philippine-American war.
“Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!” the tweet, posted hours after the attack, read.
The tweet appears to reference remarks Trump made on the campaign trail, when he claimed that General John J. Pershing dipped bullets in pig’s blood and used them to kill radical Islamist insurgents during the aftermath of the Philippine-American war between 1899-1902.
“They were having terrorism problems, just like we do,” Trump said on Feb. 19, 2016, according to the Washington Post.
“And he caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people. And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pigs’ blood… and he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said, ‘You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened.’ And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem.”
(Note: the amount of years Trump uses has jumped from 25 to 35).
But the story is false, fact–checking website Snopes says.
“There was no mass execution led by Pershing. That is a rumour created on the internet,” the website states.
“We found no references to this alleged incident in Pershing biographies, however, nor does it match the way Pershing is generally recorded as having dealt with the Moros in 1911.”
When debunking the statement from Trump in Feb., 2016, Snopes went a step further, explaining that Pershing was “more inclined towards peace talks with the Moros rather than violence.” – the Moro province was the area where Pershing was stationed.
Snopes says the story comes from “the internet,” and has other iterations, including the false statement that Pershing threatening to bury the insurgents with pigs. The rumours have been spreading online since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
After Trump’s statements in February, Politifact, another fact-checking website, consulted historians on the topic.
“This story is a fabrication and has long been discredited,” Brian McAllister Linn, a Texas A&M University historian told Politifact. “I am amazed it is still making the rounds.”
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