‘You Made That Up’: British Furious After Trump Tweets Lie Falsely Linking England Crime Rate Rise to ‘Radical Islamic Terror’
Report Doesn’t Mention ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’
President Donald Trump has once again inflamed tensions with America’s greatest ally, England. Friday morning Trump posted a tweet falsely linking a recent rise in crime in England and Wales to radical Islamic terror.Â
Just out report: “United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.” Not good, we must keep America safe!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2017
There does not appear to be any report titled, “United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.”
Headlines from British news outlets blasted the American president.
“Donald Trump links UK crime rise to ‘radical Islamic terror’, despite complete absence of evidence to support claim,” The Independent screamed.
“Trump erroneously links UK crime rise with ‘spread of Islamic terror’,” The Guardian reports. “In latest Twitter outburst US president makes terror link even though annual crime figures record all police-recorded offences,” the award-winning two-century old newspaper points out.
The Telegraph makes clear Trump is wrong: “The rise in violent crime however was largely attributed to a surge in knife related offences, which were up 26 per cent and have largely been attributed to gang activities, rather than terrorism.”Â
BuzzFeed UK also makes it clear Trump is wrong:
Donald Trump claims increased UK crime is due to Islamic terror. UK statisticians haven’t said anything like that.https://t.co/R0EJarPqKd pic.twitter.com/pVZUy1IbPk
— BuzzFeed UK Politics (@BuzzFeedUKPol) October 20, 2017
But Tom Knowles of The Times shows just how wrong Trump is:
1 It came out a day ago
2 It’s England & Wales, not UK
3 In 60 page doc, ‘terror’ is mentioned five times. ‘Islamic’ & ‘radical’? Zero times https://t.co/QmR3I1tx4d— Tom Knowles (@tkbeynon) October 20, 2017
And the Daily Mirror’s Mikey Smith offered up a few snarky and totally appropriate tweets:
1) It doesn’t mention “radical Islamic terror†anywhere. You made that up.
2) However there has been a 29% increase in hate crimes, so… https://t.co/65tlO1TGCJ— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) October 20, 2017
3) Are we going on the travel ban list? https://t.co/65tlO1TGCJ
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) October 20, 2017
And Reuters’ Peter Thal Larsen pushed back with this:
Reminder: More people died in the Las Vegas shooting than in UK terror attacks this decade. https://t.co/4BJrORaHrz
— Peter Thal Larsen (@peter_tl) October 20, 2017
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