Donald Trump on John J. Pershing
← Back to Donald Trump ProfileFollowing the 2017 Barcelona attack, Donald Trump tweeted a historically dubious endorsement of General Pershing's brutal methods against terrorists, referencing a popular but unsubstantiated story.
“Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!”
During a 2016 South Carolina campaign stop, Donald Trump recounted a fabricated story of General Pershing executing terrorists with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.
“They were having terrorism problems, just like we do, and he caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people. And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pigs’ blood — you heard that, right? He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pigs’ blood. And he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem.”