Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Join today
Already a member?
Log in
Norway has found the perfect riposte to Donald Trump bizarrely labelling it a “s**t house country”.
The US president said on Sunday that immigrants from Norway are not welcome in the United States, days before next week’s midterm elections.
The tantrum came as the president continued to complain that the Nobel committee, based in the capital Oslo, has not awarded him a Peace Prize.
In response, Visit Norway, the Scandinavian nation’s tourist board compiled a list of its best toilets, asking “Are these the world’s best s**t houses?”
“Norway makes s**t houses great again”, the post on its website compiling the country’s most scenic lavatory facilities read.
“These toilets are worth a visit, both when you really have to go – and when you don’t.”
President Trump has long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize and made no secret of his aspiration to win it. He has previously heaped pressure on the committee to give him the prestigious accolade.
As he attributed unrest in France to immigration, the president said he would welcome immigrants from some countries but not from Norway “because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize … So I don’t want anybody from Norway.”
“Norway has become a s**t house country, actually,” Mr Trump said, using a term that he has previously applied to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
There was no indication that the Trump administration was adopting new official policy on Norwegian immigrants.
Trump earlier previously called the failure to give him a Nobel Peace Prize an “indelible stain” on Norway.
Visit Norway’s list featured those from its scenic routes.
Trump dances during a campaign rally at Rock Hill Sports and Event Center (AP)
Its description of one read: “If you are a mere mortal like us and can’t afford a gold-plated toilet seat, the Golden loo on the island Senja is the next best thing.”
About the response, Evgenia Egorova, senior adviser at Visit Norway told NRK: “Sometimes it doesn’t take much, just a little do-it-yourself humour and fantastic Norwegian architecture.”
Jens Kjeldsen, a rhetoric professor at the University of Bergen, praised the tourist board’s response for showing up the president.
“By creating humour, the statements become less serious than they otherwise would have been”, he told NRK.
He added: “It’s like the bully in kindergarten. If you get too serious, the bully will win, but if you manage to take it with a smile, or make fun of the bully, you’re in a much better position”.
