The Donald Trump lie that upset New Zealanders the most - Trump gets called out on social media for repeating erroneous claim during inauguration speech

U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration in an inauguration speech that Americans "split the atom" prompted vexed social media posts on Tuesday by New Zealanders, who said the achievement belonged to a pioneering scientist revered in his homeland.

The mayor of a New Zealand city has rubbished an eyebrow-raising claim made by President Donald Trump during his wild inauguration speech.

Scientists based in Manchester, not the US, made the "key breakthrough" in splitting the atom, despite Donald Trump's claims in his inaugural speech, says a lecturer at the university. The 47th US President erroneously listed the feat among his country's achievements during his address in Washington DC, after he was sworn on Monday.

Nick Smith, the mayor of Nelson, challenged Trump’s claim Americans split the atom, stating the feat was actually achieved by New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford.

Trump's claim that American experts were responsible for this feat has been met with swift correction from New Zealanders, who proudly assert that their native son, Sir Ernest Rutherford, was the true pioneer behind this discovery.

Mayor Nick Smith said that he would invite the incoming US ambassador to visit the Rutherford memorial in Nelson 'so we can keep the historic record on who split the atom first accurate'.

A small town mayor in New Zealand has picked a nuclear fight with Donald Trump, after the freshly sworn-in US president heaped praise on American scientists for splitting the atom.

Donald Trump angered New Zealanders on his first day in office when he asserted that America split the atom, something that Sir Ernest Rutherford accomplished.

New Zealanders are expressing frustration after U.S. President Donald Trump credited Americans with splitting the atom in his second inaugural address——an achievement widely attributed to Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealand -born scientist hailed as the father of nuclear physics.

Donald Trump vexed New Zealanders on the first day of his presidency after he claimed that America split the atom – a feat achieved by Sir Ernest Rutherford from Nelson in New Zealand.