EXCLUSIVE: Mystery Fox News Guest Says Network ‘Solely Responsible’ For Identifying Him As ‘National Security Advisor’

It would appear as if one recent guest on The O’Reilly Factor brought in to speak about the threat of immigration in Sweden is not who he seems to be.

On Thursday’s night broadcast, a segment on Sweden’s status as a refugee-friendly nation featured Anne-Sofie Naslund, the U.S. correspondent for Expressen, and Nils Bildt, who was described by an on-screen chyron (with verbatim accompanying introduction by O’Reilly himself) as, “Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor.” An on-screen graphic leading into the segment read, “One third of all Swedish women no longer feel secure in their neighborhoods.”

But by Friday night some in the Swedish Twittersphere began to speculate that the segment guest Nils Bildt — who told O’Reilly that Swedish politicians have “absolutely… no systemic plan for integrating mass amounts of immigrants to become productive members of society,” — was not who he said he was. Or, at least, who he agreed to be at the alleged design of the network.

Bildt provided the following statement to Mediaite (emphasis mine):

Suffice to say I am an independent political advisor. Fox News is solely responsible for the header or title used. I cannot comment on that. Sorry for any confusion caused, but needless to say I think that is not really the issue, the issue is Swedish refusal to discuss their social problems and issues.

Bildt refused to elaborate any further about his credentials, background, or qualifications in the Swedish defense world.

Bill O’Reilly even introduced Bildt with the exact description; Bildt nodded in agreement. A closer examination of Bildt’s responses to O’Reilly shape an even stranger picture of his involvement in the discussion about Swedish crime and immigration, a topic still raging from Trump’s Tucker flap last weekend.

After Naslund argued that people in Sweden feel safe in their home country, Bildt rebutted the newspaper writer’s assertions. The “Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor” dug in:

Unfortunately Ms. Naslund is quite incorrect. Rather incorrect. The – There is a problem with the socially deviant activity. There is a problem with crime, there is a problem with areas or hotspots of crime be it in Malmo, Gothenburg or Stockholm or the suburbs thereof. And these things are not being openly and honestly discussed. The narrative in Sweden, the Swedish political debate, is completely false. You can not have a debate, an honest open debate in Sweden about immigration. Because if you don’t agree with the liberal — shall we say, common agenda — then you are viewed as an outsider or not even taken seriously.

The generic answer void of any real defense talk prompted a follow-up by the host about cutting immigration; Bildt answered from the perspective of a native Swede ready to criticize his own government’s inaction:

We are unable in Sweden to socially integrate these people. But the Swedish politicians absolutely have no systemic plan for integrating mass amounts of immigrants to become productive members of society. So of course you’re gonna have social problems.

As for the real Nils Bildt himself, there is a bit more to the mystery; we found a well-hidden online photo gallery (linked to Bildt’s personal email) of Bildt and a companion traversing Asia and Europe just nine months ago. Bildt refused comment about the photos, which were posted quietly on a site called, “Nils and John: Japan to the UK Adventure.” The link was quickly disabled and the site deleted after our exchange with him:

The description for the trek in late Spring 2016 makes no reference to Bildt’s work in Swedish defense:

On April 21st, 2016, Nils and John set of on an adventure, to cross the world by car. We depart Japan by ferry for Korea, then Russia. From there we cross into Mongolia and will cross the entire country using only off-road tracks. We are doing this trip with no support, no extra team to rely on, we will be completely self-sufficient, for the entire journey. An outline of our journey can be found below and we will post updates on an almost daily basis. Please follow along as we keep you updated on our progress (and doubtless many problems) throughout the entire trip. For those of you that supported us, thank you for your generosity.

The now-deleted page had dozens of road trip photos from the man who Thursday peddled himself as a Swedish National Security Advisor to millions of Americans in primetime cable, including this one from the duo’s stop in Moscow: Bildt referring to Red Square as “the Center of the Universe” (“Betty” is the name of the car Nils and John used for the journey).

Swedish news sources are alleging other details about Bildt and his known background, much of which Mediaite can not independently verify at this time.

We’re only left with one question: seriously, who dressed up as a Swedish defense advisor to argue in favor of stricter border control on The Factor?

We received the following statement from Fox News:

Our booker made numerous inquiries and spoke to people who recommended Nils Bildt and after pre-interviewing him and reviewing his bio, we agreed that he would make a good guest for the topic that evening. — David Tabacoff, EP, The O’Reilly Factor

The Fox Spokesperson went on to say: Bill O’Reilly will further address this on Monday night’s show.

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J.D. Durkin (@jivedurkey) is an editorial producer and columnist at Mediaite.