“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!” Trump tweeted on Monday, criticizing Merkel’s ‘open-door’ policy that saw almost two million predominantly Muslim migrants flood Germany since 2014.

The mainstream media pounced on Trump immediately, accusing the President of lying. Crime, they argued, is in fact way down in Germany. According to government statistics, crime in Germany fell almost 10 percent last year, reaching its lowest level since 1992.

“We’re actually doing fine, thanks” quipped the English-language version of the German government news network Deutsche Welle.

The New York Times rushed in to point out Trump’s claim was false – as did Vox, The Hill, and CNN’s Brian Stelter, who bashed the president for “misleading the public.”

Trump’s critics also blasted him for playing on divisions in Merkel’s government. The German chancellor’s grand coalition was shaken after Interior Minister Horst Seehofer unveiled a new strategy that would allow German authorities to turn back refugees at its borders if they have already applied for asylum in other EU countries. Chancellor Merkel opposed the proposal, saying Berlin can’t unilaterally shut its borders without consulting with its European neighbors.

Some German journalists also dissected Trump’s assumption that Merkel’s standing may be in peril over her immigration policies. Everything is fine in Germany, they say, and the chancellor is sitting pretty at a 50 percent approval rating, a hair above Trump’s 48 percent rating at home.