Norwegian media, business leaders and not least top politicians are anxiously following US President-elect Donald Trump’s appointments to his emerging government. Speculation is flying over what they will mean for Norway, while another state agency pulled out of the social media channel run by Trump’s new wonderboy, Elon Musk.
The Norwegian police stopped using Musk’s ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) a few weeks ago and now Norway’s state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) has withdrawn as well. SSB officials claim they had “low response” to what they’d published on X, until they announced last week that they no longer would: Newspaper Aftenposten reported that the announcement suddenly sparked strong reaction from users who thought SSB was sending a political message.
“Skam dere, (Shame on you),” wrote one angry X user, who went on to brand SSB as a politiske drittinstitusjon, literally a “political shit-institution.” Another claimed SSB “had gone woke also,” while yet another wrote that SSB “is a public institution and should seriously sharpen up.”
SSB’s announcement came right after Trump won the US election, which SSB officials claimed was completely coincidental. They stated in a press release that X hadn’t been a priority channel for SSB in recent years, and hadn’t spread SSB’s content to the degree sought.
There were also concerns over how X handled users’ data and privacy, so SSB opted to “consolidate resources” and “deliver facts” via other channels including Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and, not least, its own website. More changes in the use of social media, though, may be made.
“We understand that folks have questions and are engaged, but it’s sad to read that our exit from X is generating more meaning than what’s actually the case,” Preben Aursand of SSB told Aftenposten.
Petter Bae Brandtzæg, a professor in media innovation at the University of Oslo, noted that “very many” X users have also pulled out recently, and that it’s not unusual for SSB to do the same. “X is becoming uncivilized,” Brandtzæg told Aftenposten. He thinks the timing of SSB’s pullout was unfortunate, but that it can be “conspiratorial” to think that reasons given for the angry reaction contain any truth.
Elon Musk himself used to be viewed as a wonderboy in Norway, which also provided a major market for his Tesla electric cars when they first started rolling off the production line. Government incentives to buy electric cars, including much lower taxes on them and exemption from road tolls, made Norway one of Tesla’s most important markets and Musk visited several times, even holding small gatherings with customers at a Tesla dealership in Oslo. Musk made it clear at the time that he appreciated all the help that Norwegian officials provided in making Teslas popular as part of their own efforts to cut emissions.
Now many of Norway’s so-called el-bil incentives have been repealed, since the vast majority of all new cars sold in Norway are electric and their owners now need to help pay for road improvements, just like owners of fossil-fuel vehicles. Norway also needs to abide by EU rules regarding tax exemptions. Public opinion also turned against Musk when he came to be viewed as a union-buster who won’t recognize the organized labour system in all of Scandinavia.
“It’s time to question Norway’s role in building up the Tesla brand and its high sales numbers,” editorialized newspaper Klassekampen last month, referring to all the state subsidy he received in the form of customers’ tax breaks. The editorial came after Tesla workers in Sweden had been on strike for a year, backed by Norwegian labour federations that declared a boycott on Teslas made in Sweden.
While some Norwegian investors have been profiting on the sudden jump in Tesla share prices after Musk became part of Trump’s new team, others have been complaining bitterly about their Tesla vehicles and how expensive they are to repair. Slije Sandmæl, a well-known economist at Norway’s largest bank for more than 20 years, recently told magazine D2 that her Tesla was “the worst investment” she’s ever made.
Musk’s Teslas still claim fully 20 percent of the market for all car sales in Norway. Some Norwegians hope Musk will turn out to be “the adult in the room” when he starts working with Donald Trump, not least because of Trump’s threats of high tariffs on imports. It won’t be in Musk’s own interests if the US under Trump isolates itself from the rest of the world and strangles foreign trade. News came this week that Musk will be in charge of cutting US bureaucracy and making government more efficient.
Norwegian media has also, meanwhile, been following Trump’s choices for other roles in his government. As usual, anyone with Norwegian background gets special attention, including the Fox News host and war veteran Pete Hegseth, who’s poised to become Trump’s new secretary of defense. While many worry about his credentials for such an important post, and not least his skepticism towards NATO, Norwegian news bureau NTB was quick to point out that Hegseth’s great-grandparents came from Norway and settled in Minnesota.
Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to lead the US Department of Homeland Security, has also been singled out for her Norwegian roots. Newspaper Dagbladet and ABC Nyheter reported that the conservtative Noem (who’s the governor of South Dakota, once proposed a federal ban on abortion and backs strict immigration rules) is herself a product of Norwegian immigration. She has described herself on social media as “a proud Norwegian” and a fan of the expression uff da, when something goes wrong.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
