'Pray For Sweden,' Twitter Users Giggle After Trump's Latest Stumble

Another day, another false alarm from the president — and then a welcome stretch of comic relief on Twitter.

Donald Trump ’s apparent assertion at a rally Saturday that something tragic had happened the previous night in Sweden had everyone scratching their heads.

“You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” he said, passionately but inexplicably. “Sweden! Who would believe this ?”

No one could believe it — not even Sweden , whose officials contacted the White House to find out what the president was talking about. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt asked what Trump had been smoking.

Which led to this:

Trump clarified Sunday that he was referring to something he had seen on Fox News apparently an interview with conservative filmmaker Ami Horowitz, who linked a purported rising crime rate with the thousands of refugees Sweden has welcomed to its country. The nation took in more refugees per capita than any other European country in 2015. Crime rates in Sweden have changed little over the past decade, The Guardian reports .

It was all great fuel for the Twitter fire that erupted, with snarky rejoinders at #LastNightinSweden , #PrayForSweden , #SwedishIncident  and #IStandWithSweden . Critics especially enjoyed juxtaposing Trump’s suggestion of a terror attack against the reality of a pretty, tranquil, sometimes even downright dull Sweden. 

Author J.K. Rowling got in on the fun after Swedish news reported that the big story in the country on “terror day” was the rescue from a well of a horse named Biscuit.

There were the inevitable quips (including one from former first daughter Chelsea Clinton) referring to Trump aide Kellyanne Conway ’s mention earlier this month of the nonexistent “Bowling Green Massacre ” and White House spokesman Sean Spicer’s reference to a nonexistent terror attack in Atlanta . The man the president spoke so glowingly of earlier this month , the late Frederick Douglass, purportedly returned from the grave to protect Sweden.

There had to be some comments about Ikea, of course.

And, inevitably, Stockholm syndrome raised its frightening head.