As an immigration crisis unfolds at home on the United States’ border with Mexico, President Donald Trump trained his ire Monday morning on Germany, a country he falsely said has a rising crime rate.
“The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!” he tweeted.
“We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!” he added.
But data from the German government suggests Trump’s hypothesis on crime is incorrect. Statistics from the Federal Ministry of the Interior show that 2017 saw the lowest number of crimes committed in Germany since 1992. The number of non-German suspects dropped almost 23% from 2016 to 2017.
The tweet comes days after Trump defended his “great relationship” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after contentious-looking photos of the two from the G7 conference surfaced.
“I have a great relationship with Angela Merkel of Germany, but the Fake News Media only shows the bad photos (implying anger) of negotiating an agreement - where I am asking for things that no other American President would ask for!” he wrote.
CNN’s Judith Vonberg contributed to this report.