The Trump Norway feud reached a new low after Donald Trump told a Michigan crowd he does not want any immigrants from Norway because he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, and Norway’s government has now responded.
Speaking Sunday at a campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan, about a week before the November 3 midterm elections, Trump turned his frustration over the prize into an attack on the entire country. “I didn’t get the Nobel Prize. So I don’t want anybody from Norway. I don’t want anything to do with Norway,” he said. He went further, telling supporters “Norway sucks” and using a vulgar slang word for an outhouse to describe the country. He added that he would rather take immigrants from neighboring Denmark.
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize went to Navi Pillay, the South African jurist and former United Nations human rights chief, on October 9. Trump blasted the choice at the time, calling the committee’s decision disgraceful and saying Pillay’s selection left a stain on Norway.
Norway answered Monday. Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide went on NRK, the country’s public broadcaster, and made clear the government had nothing to do with the decision. “He knows very well that the Nobel Committee is independent. We have reminded him of that, in case anyone is wondering, and that is still the case,” Eide said. He also stressed that Norway values its long relationship with the United States and signaled that Oslo would not spend much energy on campaign trail insults.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee backed him up with its own statement, saying it is entirely independent of the Norwegian government. The Peace Prize is chosen by a committee of five people appointed by Norway’s Parliament for terms of six years. Members of the government and sitting lawmakers are barred from serving on it. The prime minister cannot pick the winner, and neither can the foreign minister.
This is not the first time Trump has pinned the prize on Norway’s leaders. In January, he sent a message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre tying his push to take over Greenland to his Nobel snub, a letter that became known as “Dear Jonas.” Norway’s opposition lawmakers condemned it at the time.
The insult also flips Trump’s own history. In January 2018, during an Oval Office meeting on immigration, Trump used a vulgar term to describe Haiti and African nations and said the United States should bring in more people from Norway. Norwegians answered back then with “thanks, but no thanks,” pointing to their free healthcare, paid parental leave and subsidized daycare. Eight years later, the country he once held up as the model for immigration is the one he says he wants nothing to do with.
For now, the Trump Norway fight lives on the campaign stage. There is no official sign of any new U.S. policy restricting immigrants from Norway.
