Does Donald Trump feel the same way about fake history as he does about fake news?
Apparently not, as the president cited a now-discredited story about U.S. Army Gen. John Joseph Pershing, who acted as governor of the mostly Muslim province of Moro Province after the Philippine-American War, from 1899-1902.
“Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught,” Trump tweeted late Thursday morning. “There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898254409511129088
The story goes — as Trump discussed on the campaign trail — that the general dipped terrorists who he caught in pigs blood before shooting them.
“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 — you heard that, right?” Trump said at a rally in South Carolina in February of 2016. “He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them 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. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem.”
Snopes calls the story a “legend,” and critics called the story misleading.
As Politifact points out, the idea of using pigs blood as a weapon against Muslims as been around for decades, but there is little historical evidence to support it.
Trump’s tweet comes after 13 were killed and more than 50 injured in Barcelona, Spain, when a van plowed into a crowd of people Thursday. The Spanish government has ruled the attack as terrorism. “The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!” the president tweeted an hour before the Pershing tweet.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898243270169563136