Donald Trump says Norway is a 's***hole'. Now the country he slammed has delivered its withering response

When Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen led the first expedition of any kind to reach the North Pole, flying over the polar ice cap in the airship Norge in 1926, he didn't insist on planting the Norwegian flag first. As his ship passed over the region, he magnanimously dropped Norway's flag over the side of the vessel along with flags of Italy and the United States, his two main collaborators in the historic trip.

Nor have the heirs of a much earlier Norwegian adventurer, Norseman Leif Erikson, thrown their toys and exploded with rage over the centuries in which US historians and history books have ignored the fact that Erikson discovered North America around 1000 AD – five centuries before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Both redoubtable men could teach Donald Trump a lesson or two about how to keep one's head in a crisis.

The US President certainly lost his on Sunday when, during a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, he complained to his audience that the Nobel Peace Prize – an award he has long coveted – had been 'gotten by a woman nobody had ever heard of': South African Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay.

However, Trump reserved his worst invective for the people who had given Pillay, a human rights lawyer and former International Criminal Court judge, the prize – the five-member Oslo-based Norwegian Nobel Committee. 'So I'm not in love with Norway,' he went on. 'Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a s***house country, actually.'

'Now it's crazy what's going on out there. It's called the world of politics.'

Unfortunately for Mr Trump, the 'world of politics' may be about to hand out a humiliating blow to his ego and to the rest of his second White House term in next week's midterm election – which is surely why his failure to get the Peace Prize now, at the precise time he could do with a victory, has so infuriated him.

At the recent rally, he even suggested that the US should accept fewer Norwegian immigrants, complaining, 'I didn't get the Nobel Prize. So I don't want anybody from Norway… I don't want anything to do with Norway.' Earlier this month, Trump described the decision to give the Peace Prize to Navi Pillay as an 'indelible stain on the country of Norway.' 

In Michigan on Sunday, Trump complained to his audience that the Nobel Peace Prize – an award he has long coveted – had been 'gotten by a woman nobody had ever heard of'

'Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a s***house country, actually,' Trump said 

Trump described the decision to give the Peace Prize to Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay, a South African human rights lawyer as an 'indelible stain on the country of Norway'

Washington insiders say Trump is 'obsessed' with winning the Peace Prize, which much to his disgust Barack Obama won in the first year of his presidency for his work strengthening international diplomacy and supporting a world free of nuclear weapons. Aides in the Trump administration say senior State Department officials have it in the back of their minds at all times, one saying: 'Trump sees this prize as the ultimate capstone to how history will remember him.' 

Only two other sitting US presidents besides Obama, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, have won the award.

Last year, Trump did his best to drum up international support, garnering nominations for the annual prize from officials in Pakistan, Cambodia and Israel as well as Republican politicians for the various ways he claims to have ended conflicts. Trump has repeatedly asserted he has settled eight wars and was 'about to settle or win two more' referring to the Iran and Ukraine conflicts.

Although the 2025 winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, presented her medal to Trump, the Nobel committee predictably decided that the physical exchange of the award didn't mean Trump actually received the honor; the Nobel Peace Prize laureate belonged with the South American.

The latest outburst, and particularly Trump's intention to ban Norwegians from coming to the US, is doubly amusing for Trump's opponents because he has repeatedly called for more immigrants from 'nice' countries – such as Norway.

In 2018, he reportedly complained at a White House immigration meeting about the US letting in 's***hole countries' such as Haiti, El Salvador and various African nations, and demanded to know why officials weren't accepting more migrants from Norway, whose prime minister he had met the day before.

Six years later, Trump again bemoaned a lack of immigrants from 'nice' countries at an event in Palm Beach, Florida.

'And when I said, you know, "Why can't we allow people to come in from nice countries," I'm trying to be nice,' he told his audience.

'Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?'

Trump's abrupt decision to demote the land of the Vikings, fjords and world-class skiing to 's***hole' status was met with frustration at the government level as Norwegian officials said again that they have no influence over the decision on the Peace Prize.

'He knows very well that the Nobel committee is independent,' Espen Barth Eide, the Norwegian foreign minister, told his country's public broadcaster NRK. 'We have reminded him of that, in case anyone is wondering, and that is still the case.'

With a tact that suggested that the Norwegian politician didn't want his country facing the Trump invasion threats that have come Greenland's way, Mr Barth Eide tried to dismiss the US President's churlish and foul-mouthed tirade as mere campaign rhetoric. He insisted Norway attached 'great importance' to its strong relationship with America, adding waspishly that Trump 'is currently in the midst of an election campaign that perhaps isn't going very well for his party, and that leads him to say a lot of things.'

The 2025 winner - Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado – presented her medal to Trump, but the Nobel committee pointed out that the physical exchange of the award didn't mean Trump actually received the honor

Washington insiders say Trump is 'obsessed' with winning the Peace Prize, which much to his disgust Barack Obama won in the first year of his presidency 

'He knows very well that the Nobel committee is independent,' Espen Barth Eide, the Norwegian foreign minister, told his country's public broadcaster NRK

Meanwhile, Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, was too busy to respond to Trump's toxic language. With some irony, given this is supposedly about world peace, he spent Tuesday joining Finnish president Alexander Stubb in a rare 90-minute phone call to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss peace negotiations with Ukraine.

The Norwegians are famously a stoic bunch, not prone to emotional outbursts, and many must have felt that punching back at President Trump was beneath their dignity.

The country of 5.6 million people hasn't exactly taken to the longboats over the insults – perhaps because they know that calling an affluent, peaceful and beautiful nation like Norway a 's***house' is palpably ludicrous.

Boosted considerably by oil and natural gas revenue, Norway is among ⁠the highest-income countries as measured by GDP per capita. Its sovereign wealth fund posted record profit of 1.75 trillion Norwegian crowns ($184.3 billion) for ⁠the first half of 2026

And there are plenty more impressive statistics where that came from, as both Norwegian and American critics of Trump have been brandishing online.

The metrics that show Norway significantly outperforming the US include life expectancy (more than four years), infant mortality, adult obesity (the US has more than twice the rate), GDP per capita ($106,000 to $94,000), corruption perceptions, press freedom and the World Happiness Rank, which has Norwegians in sixth place and Americans in 23rd.

Another statistic that rather undermines Trump's threat over Norwegian migration is that the flow is far stronger in the other direction.

According to the Oslo government, more Americans emigrated to Norway in 2025 than Norwegians emigrated to the United States. Last year, 1,529 American citizens moved to Norway, compared with 1,005 Norwegians who relocated to the United States.

'Dear President Trump – a little perspective from Norway,' posted Norwegian Magne Bjella on X. 'Please don't lose any sleep worrying about whether we are coming to America. I'm very happy here.'

Washington insiders say Trump is 'obsessed' with winning the Peace Prize

Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, second from right, was too busy to respond to Trump's toxic language

According to the Oslo government, more Americans emigrated to Norway in 2025 than Norwegians emigrated to the United States

Bjella then listed reasons including 'healthcare that follows us through life,' 'time to be parents,' 'subsidized childcare,' 'accessible higher education' and 'support when illness strikes'.

One Trump opponent made their point by posting a video on X of 'Norway's coolest toilet,' an extraordinary architect-designed outdoor building in a beautiful mountain setting with a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking a roaring river. 'Here's just one of the s***houses, Mr. President,' scoffed the X poster.

Norwegian X poster Pal Johansen provided a few more figures highlighting what he saw as Norway's superiority, including a murder rate which is a fraction of America's, and a low rate of homelessness compared to the US.

Displaying more of the Viking ferocity of old, a popular AI-generated video on TikTok showed a smiling female Norwegian navy officer politely pointing out that the Norwegian government has no say over the Peace Prize before telling Trump: 'Sir, you're just a f***ing toddler throwing a tantrum over a trophy.'

In a long post on X, Peter Girnus, a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, reminded readers that President Trump did have the Nobel Peace Prize medal, at least in its physical form if not in status, thanks to last year's winner.

'You might think that holding a peace medal would make a man think about peace, even a little, even out of politeness,' he said. Instead, Trump swiftly wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and informed him that, having not been given the prize, 'I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace' and renewed his demand for 'Complete and Total Control of Greenland' (a territory controlled by Denmark not Norway).

'Most laureates take years to disappoint us. This one did it in a long weekend, with someone else's medal,' Girnus added.

Norwegians last made a significant cultural impact in the US during this year's soccer world cup when their fans became an instant social media hit by performing their 'Viking Row' ritual – pretending to row a longboat en masse – during their team's campaign.

Video posts shared online yesterday showed American fans copying them – another blow to Trump's insistence that Norway 'sucks.'