During a rally in Melbourne, Florida, President Donald Trump made a rather strange and cryptic remark about an incident taking place the previous night in Sweden.
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/833109003160924160
In the hours since, nobody’s been able to figure out what the president was referring to. Sweden has reportedly sought clarification from the U.S. State Department about Trump’s remarks.
The error recalled another imaginary terrorist attack—the now-infamous Bowling Green massacre statement made multiple times by White House counselor Kellyanne Conway earlier this month—invoked to justify the president’s executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven majority-Muslim nations.
Both terrorism-related canards have spurred responses from the daughter of Trump’s former general election opponent. Chelsea Clinton, who worked as a campaign surrogate for her mother’s 2016 campaign, responded to Trump’s Sweden comment on Twitter.
What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators?
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 19, 2017
Back on Feb. 3, Clinton similarly jabbed at Conway regarding her fallacious Bowling Green massacre comment, urging people to “please not make up attacks.”
Very grateful no one seriously hurt in the Louvre attack …or the (completely fake) Bowling Green Massacre. Please don't make up attacks.
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 3, 2017
That tweet drew a testy response from Conway, gloating about the fact that Trump won the presidential election.
Bosnia lie a Great reminder. And 2 @ChelseaClinton & others, you can't "invent" quality candidates either. I misspoke; you lost the election https://t.co/7TwnX2b5yA
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
Thus far, there’s no indication that anyone associated with the Trump team plans to respond to her latest joke, but it’s fair to guess that they’re aware of how much attention the Sweden remark is generating. It’s currently trending on Twitter and has become one of the most highly scrutinized takeaways from Trump’s rally.