New York Times: ‘Last Night in Sweden’? Trump’s Remark Baffles a Nation

By Sewell Chan:

Swedes reacted with confusion, anger and ridicule on Sunday to a vague remark by President Trump that suggested that something terrible had occurred in their country.

During a campaign-style rally on Saturday in Florida, Mr. Trump issued a sharp if discursive attack on refugee policies in Europe, ticking off a list of places that have been hit by terrorists.

“You look at what’s happening,” he told his supporters. “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?”

Not the Swedes.

Nothing particularly nefarious happened in Sweden on Friday — or Saturday, for that matter — and Swedes were left baffled.

“Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound,” Carl Bildt, a former prime minister and foreign minister, wrote on Twitter.

As the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet noted, Twitter users were quick to ridicule Mr. Trump’s remark, with joking references to the Swedish Chef, the “Muppets” character; Swedish meatballs; and Ikea, the furniture giant.

The Full Story (February 19, 2017)

See also: 'Sweden, who would believe this?': Trump Cites Non-Existent Terror Attack by The Guardian.

[Special] The Guardian: Trump Press Conference: 'Sick People' Leaked 'Fake News' Russia Dossier (Live Coverage)

Various employees of The Guardian had live coverage of Trump's first press conference in months, where he railed against everyone and failed to take any personal responsibility, as usual. He said the reports about his piss fetish was a fabrication, and he also said he would not put his interests into a blind trust, thus ensuring massive ethics concerns for however long the country has to deal with this man.

This entire structure is engineered around avoiding "unreasonable losses" as opposed to meeting ethical requirements.

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 11, 2017

[Special] Donald Trump's Sexual Assault Allegations: November 2016 Edition

The flood of sexual assault claims was coming in at such a rapid rate that I decided to compile them and wait until the tide subsided, so I could then drop them in a single post. Since the American media and public are now obsessed with discussing FBI Director James Comey's unprecedented and unusual announcement about additional emails found on Anthony Weiner's computer which may or may not be classified and may or may not have been to/from Hillary Clinton and may or may not be duplicates of emails they already have, the sexual assault business is now merely the echo of a memory. Except here, of course, where I strive to chronicle all of the insanity of Donald Trump.

This post is not an essay so much as a link dump, so apologies for the lack of prose. Also, as a note, despite this being the "November Edition," there are no articles from November, save towards the end, where an article by Vocativ (linked in the last paragraph) highlights the GOP folks who disavowed Trump and then reaffirmed their support for him like the craven, spineless frauds they are. Below is a list of articles relating to Trump's sexual assaults that came out on or after the October Edition was published.

• Talking Points Memo: The Floodgates Open by Josh Marshall (October 12, 2016)
• Talking Points Memo: Four Decades Of Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Trump by Kristin Salaky and Esme Cribb (October 13, 2016)
• New York Magazine: It Doesn’t Take a Conspiracy Theory to Explain the Timing of the New Trump Allegations by Eric Levitz (October 13, 2016)
• Washington Post: Woman Says Trump Reached Under Her Skirt and Groped Her in Early 1990s by Karen Tumulty (October 14, 2016)
• The Guardian: Donald Trump 'Grabbed Me and Went for the Lips', Says New Accuser by Molly Redden (October 16, 2016)
• Washington Post: The Growing List of Women Who Have Stepped Forward to Accuse Trump of Touching Them Inappropriately by Rosalind S. Helderman (October 22, 2016)
• Talking Points Memo: Trump On Adult Film Star Accuser - ‘I’m Sure She's Never Been Grabbed Before’ by Allegra Kirkland (October 24, 2016)

As Dana Milbank wrote for the Post, we knew this Trump all along: 

Republicans may be dismayed by the super-predator they saw and heard in the video (just as they purported to be stunned by Trump’s racist attack on Judge Gonzalo Curiel despite Trump’s long history of racism), but they have no business being surprised. What’s on that tape is entirely consistent with what we already knew.

Even before this tape emerged, we knew that his wife Ivana accused him at the time of their divorce of raping her (Trump’s lawyer asserted that there is no such thing as spousal rape). We’ve known for months that makeup artist Jill Harth filed a 1997 complaint accusing Trump of attempted rape and of groping her in his daughter Ivanka’s bedroom. We’ve seen complaint after complaint about his lewd behavior on set at “The Apprentice” and at his Miss Universe pageants.

But while people can question the he-said, she-said allegations against Trump, it’s harder to dispute the meaning of his own words.

Here, for the benefit of those Republicans feigning surprise about Trump’s video, is a partial catalogue of reported remarks Trump has made about women — remarks which, by embracing Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, office holders in the party have already condoned[.]

I won't reproduce the large volume of unfortunate quotations here; you can click the link for yourself. Suffice to say, the outrage (which has since subsided, and the opposition mustered by Republican officials has faded as they jump back onto the Trump train) came surprisingly late considering the man that is Donald Trump. As Bill Simmons noted, "But seriously - why did it take today for people to turn on Trump? He's been horrible this whole time."

[Special] Editorial: Trump Thinks People Like Him, Therefore Rigged Election is Only Explanation for Losing

Donald Trump, a man who has managed to say horrible things about women, immigrants, black people, Muslims, veterans...well, let's just say nearly everyone, while demonstrating an immense lack of understanding regarding foreign and domestic policy (or even the English language), while also showing he is thin skinned and wildly temperamental, assumes that the only way he can lose an election to be president of the the U.S.A. is because it was stolen from him.

Trump has been laying the groundwork for a "rigged election" for a while. During the third and final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton went through a history of Trump claiming contests were rigged against him, back through the primaries and even into the Emmys. Trump lashed out against the Emmys when his Apprentice reality show did not win an award, as is his style(1).

When the floodgates opened(2) with claims of sexual assaults against Trump, he lashed out against the media(3):

Trump, who spent the week launching tirades at Clinton, journalists and his own party, continued on Sunday to portray himself as the victim. He tweeted: “Polls close, but can you believe I lost large numbers of women voters based on made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Media rigging election!”

In another post, he said: “Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!”

Trump's surrogates have gone out and promoted this claim as well, even as Republican officials try to downplay the storm.