NEWS ANALYSIS: Norwegians woke up earlier this week to hear the president of the United States calling their country “a shit house” and worse on national radio and TV. Most have lost so much of their earlier respect for the US that they just shook it off, while others responded in a way that’s winning respect and attention around the world.
“I don’t want anything to do with Norway,” Trump claimed at a campaign rally for his Republican Party in the state of Michigan Sunday night, Monday morning Norwegian time. Miffed once again over the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s failure to award him a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump then launched into a torrent of foul language that prompted a Norwegian professor of rhetoric at the University of Bergen to equate the US president to “a bully in the schoolyard:” Jens Kjeldsen told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that “if you take the bully seriously, he wins, but if you take it with a smile, or ridicule the bully, you wind up in a much better position.”
That’s what’s mostly happened in Norway in the days following Trump’s latest tirade. After both the prime minister and foreign minister mostly ignored Trump and his insults, others started posting photos on social media of Norway’s “most beautiful public toilets” along scenic highways.
“So, we heard some noise about “s… house country”… What can we say, we do have some of the world’s most beautiful and spectacular toilets,” wrote the national tourism promoter Visit Norway on its website. It could later report more than 750,000 viewings of its post, and thousands of people both commenting and apologizing for their president’s gutter language.
There was a lot of indignation on Norwegian media’s editorial pages after Trump’s latest rant, with newspaper Dagsavisen claiming that the US president “is creating a more dangerous world with his stupidity.” Norway’s largest national newspaper Aftenposten wrote about how “no American president has ever distanced himself so strongly from Norway.” Norway’s foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, told NRK that he didn’t want to spend more time commenting “on what Trump says from day to day.”
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, meanwhile, happened to be visiting an Oslo junior high school in honour of its new program on democracy right after Trump’s torrent of insults against Norway. They wanted to know why Støre wasn’t tougher himself against Trump.
“He uses much stronger words and characterics that I do,” Støre answered. “I don’t even use such words in private.” The biggest difference between Trump and himself, Støre said, is that “he talks about his opponents as enemies. I don’t do that. That’s how we’re different.”
Støre stressed how most Norwegian politicians refrain from viewing political opponents as enemies. He agreed that the advent of social media and commentary fields have opened the door for much more tough talk and harassment, but stressed the importance of being able to debate issues without personal offense.
Støre won applause when the session at the school was over, and several of the teenagers in attendance were enthusiastic afterwards. “It was incredibly exciting to hear the prime minister talke about democracy, freedom of expression and how disagreement can be important,” 17-year-old Nora Jaama told Dagsavisen when the session was over. Alma Fredriksen, age 15, agreed: “I think it’s good to learn more about the fellowship of disagreement, that we can disagree but still respect one another. We shouldn’t be afraid to disagree.”
There’s no question the USA has, however, lost much of the respect it long had from Norwegians. Trump’s recent agreement to buy diesel from Russia stunned many, referring to the deal struck between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “two desperate men teaming up,” according to commentator Maja Sojtaric in Dagsavisen. The same newspaper editorialized last weekend, even before Trump’s verbal attack on Norway, that Trump “is a dangerous man for the world” who’s now “lost his moral compass” and any principles he may have had.
Former Defense Chief Sverre Diesen wrote in the business and financial newspaper Dagens Næringsliv on Wednesday that the US has “lost both its credibility and the confidence of its allies, also globally.” Diesen worries that Trump “has antagonized the USA’s friends and allies on all continents” while they watch him waste the US’ military strength “on a war in the Middle East that’s a crown example of strategic foolishness.”
“The American Dream is dead,” declared NRK’s long-time correspondent in the US, Tove Bjørgaas, who’s just written a book on the US and the sorrow she feels over a country that’s “become so polarized.” The title of her book: Mitt knuste hjerte (My broken heart).
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
