President Donald Trump, responding to an outraged mainstream media system that constantly seeks to undercut his White House, clarified that his comments about the refugee crisis in Sweden came in response to a Fox News report on that country’s surge in violent crime – and were not, as the press seemed to suggest, off-base, discriminatory or flights and fabrications of fancy.

First, Trump’s comments, made during a Saturday rally in Florida: “You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.”

Now, the clarification – necessary, because the left honed in on the “last night” portion of Trump’s remarks to shrug shoulders and act puzzled, and pretend the president was speaking foolishly.

My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2017

“My statement as to what’s happening in Sweden,” Trump tweeted, “was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants and Sweden.”

He tweeted again on Monday about the press’s further loss of credibility.

Give the public a break – The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2017

The story on Fox came by way of an interview on Tucker Carlson’s show with documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz, whose latest work chronicles surging crime rates in Sweden. As Fox’s Ed Henry and Carlson reported, some have tied the hike in crime with the hike in refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Horowitz said that the “majority of the population in Sweden still wants to have an open door policy” for refugees, despite the fact numbers clearly show a surge in gun violence and rape in the country at the exact same time the doors opened wide to migrants.

He also said the government has moved in some cases to cover up these crime hikes.

“There’s been a rash of these rapes at music festivals,” Horowitz said, “[which the authorities] will cover up.”

He then spoke of the wealth of benefits that are provided for refugees, which is why they seek to come to Sweden in the first place, and said it was that entitlement system that was helping fuel the crime rate.

“They live great,” Horowitz said. “It’s one of the most generous financial programs they have in terms of the amount of money they’re giving to them, the housing benefits they get, the education benefits they get, the cash benefits they get … [And now what] they have these [migrant communities], what they’ve really become, is no-go zones. These are areas that cops won’t even enter because it’s too dangerous for them. … So they live in these enclaves … they are sitting around, it’s difficult to get jobs, there’s too many of them, but they have tremendous benefits there which is why so many of these migrants are going to Sweden to begin with.”

Those who speak out and point to the problems with the refugee population?

“Oh you can say it but you’re a racist, you’re a xenophobe, you’re an Islamaphobe,” Horowitz said. “Even [when] those statistics are clear about who are the perpetrators.”

The long-term prediction for Sweden is dire, Horowitz said.

“You can look at France and Belgium and you can see the social unrest that’s going on there,” he finished.

It was toward those points Trump spoke.

At his Florida speech on Saturday, Trump also said: “We’ve got to keep our country safe.”

The mainstream and left-leaning media, however, honed in on Trump’s remarks about “last night,” and the reference he made about “what happened last night in Sweden,” and raised some mocking eyebrows while feining ignorance at the real dangers of terrorism and crime that come from open borders.

Vox, for instance, reported: “Trump’s invention of a Swedish terrorist attack was funny.”

The Swedish newspapers AftonBladet “quickly compiled a list of noteworthy things that happened [that evening]. They included a drunken-driving arrest and ‘some technical problems’ during 87-year-old crooner Owe Thornqvist’s rehearsal prior to the Melodifestivalen song competition,” Pamela Geller noted in PamelaGeller.com.

The New York Times took potshots in a thinly veiled hit piece that spoke of how Trump’s comments simply “baffled the nation.” And Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of failed Democratic Party presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, sent out the tweet: “What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators?”

The remark was a jab at Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who mistakenly spoke of a “massacre” in the Kentucky town.

The Swedish embassy, meanwhile, sent out their own Twitter message expressing surprise and confusion about Trump’s remarks.

“Unclear to us what President Trump was referring to, have asked U.S. officials for explanation,” the tweet read.