Falsely claims a terror attack occurred 'last night in Sweden' at Florida rally

At a campaign-style rally in Melbourne, Florida on February 18, 2017, Trump told the crowd, "You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this," while arguing for stricter immigration policy tied to his travel ban. No attack, terrorist incident, or unusual event had occurred in Sweden the previous night, and Swedish officials, including former prime minister Carl Bildt, publicly questioned what Trump was referring to. Two days later Trump said on Twitter that his comment was based on a Fox News segment about immigration and crime in Sweden rather than any actual overnight event. Fact-checkers rated the claim false; the episode became a widely cited example of Trump asserting a fabricated news event to justify a policy argument, echoing the pattern of unfounded claims about the courts he had used two weeks earlier to reject a federal judge's block on his travel ban.