Donald Trump says he was 'right' about non-existent Swedish terror attack

US President claims he was 'first to say' Nordic country has problem with immigration

Donald Trump has insisted he was “proved to be right” last year when he spoke about terror attacks in Sweden being linked to an influx of refugees and migrants.

Asked about immigration at a news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, Mr Trump said: “Certainly you have a problem with the immigration. It’s caused problems in Sweden.

“I was one of the first ones to say it. I took a little heat, but that was okay, because I proved to be right.”

During a rally in Florida in February last year, Mr Trump referred to a number of countries that had taken in large numbers of refugees and were targeted by terrorists.

“We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?” Mr Trump asked.

He went on to mention Nice, France, and Brussels, where terrorist attacks had taken place in recent years.

The comments baffled Swedish officials at the time, who said they were not aware of any “terror-linked major incidents” in Sweden on the night to which Mr Trump referred.

Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter at the time: “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound.”

The US President later said in a Twitter post said he had been referring to a Fox News report about crime by immigrants in Sweden.

He said he was referring to a segment by Tucker Carlson, which featured an interview with filmmaker Ami Horowitz.

She had recently made a documentary about the refugee policy in Sweden, but the segment did not contain any breaking news about an attack.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump “was talking about rising crime and recent incidents in general and not referring to a specific incident”.

Around a month later, Mr Trump told Time magazine his comments were correct because two days afterwards there was a rally in Sweden.

“I talked about Sweden, and may have been somewhat different, but the following day, two days later, they had a massive riot in Sweden, exactly what I was talking about. I was right about that,” he said.

When the Time journalist pointed out he referred specifically to an event the night before his speech, he said: “I’m talking about what Sweden has done to themselves is very sad, that is what I am talking about.

“That is what I am talking about. You can phrase it any way you want. A day later they had a horrible, horrible riot in Sweden, and you saw what happened.”

The riot broke out in a Stockholm suburb with large immigrant population.