It's not a claim, It's fact and you can check it here: https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-count We can't tell for sure but this happening with BitcoinCash skyrocketing etc. makes me think It's a spam attack to make it look like SegWit was failure and encourage people to switch to a bigger block size (BCH).
Yes, I too believe it may last for few more days and slowly everything will become normal otherwise Bitcoins can't be used for any small amount transaction and only for very big amount transactions. A couple of days back I tried to send $60 from blockchain and the estimated fee was around $20 so I didn't do that deal.
