The President Of The United States responded to the terrorist attack in Barcelona by tweeting a bigoted and debunked Internet hoax about Gen. Pershing stopping Muslim terrorism by dipping bullets in pig’s blood.
Trump tweeted:
Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
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Trump was referencing a tale that he told during the campaign about General Pershing dipping bullets in pig’s blood to stop Muslim terrorism. The story is false. The story about Pershing and pig’s blood first surfaced after 9/11. The only thing that keeps changing in Trump’s version of the story is the amount of time terrorism was stopped for. On the campaign trail, Trump claimed that there were no attacks for 25 years, but as President, that number has jumped to 35 years.
PolitiFact examined Trump’s claim and ruled, “While these writings do provide strong evidence that United States forces used pigs as a tactic against Muslim insurgents, they do not support the claim Trump made. There is no evidence that Pershing himself committed these acts, there is nothing said about the use of 50 bullets dipped in pig’s blood, and most important, there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim that this tactic was effective in stopping violence — or that it would provide a useful policy today.”
Essentially, the President Of The United States is using a terrorist attack that left 13 dead and 50 injured to push his bigoted anti-Muslim agenda.
Trump’s account first sent out a normal tweet about Barcelona, which is widely speculated to have come from White House staff. The real Trump showed up shortly after the first tweet was posted and started spouting debunked Internet hoaxes.
While the world should be coming together in a pledge to battle extremism of all varieties, Donald Trump is off tweeting Internet hoaxes and embarrassing the United States of America.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
