Norway answers Trump's 'shithouse' jibe with a guide to the world's most beautiful toilets
After US President Donald Trump described Norway as a 'shithouse' country, Norway has chosen an unusual way to respond. The country's tourism agency has published a guide to 'the world's most beautiful and wonderful toilets' scattered amid Norway's natural scenery.
Speaking at a political rally in Port Huron, Michigan, ahead of the upcoming US midterm elections, Trump said Norway had in fact turned into a 'shithouse' country. The tourism agency's campaign came in response to his insulting remarks about Norway and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump's anger towards Norway and the Nobel Committee has flared up again since international legal expert Navi Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month. Missing out on the Nobel left him frustrated with Oslo.
Back in 2018, Trump had called Haiti and African countries 'shitholes', while at that time favouring immigrants from countries like Norway. This time he has mocked that same Norway.
In response to Trump's remarks, the state agency Visit Norway launched a social media campaign called 'Norway Makes Shithouses Great Again', which has gone viral. The agency wrote that some noise about a 'shithouse country' had reached its ears, and that it could only say some of the world's most beautiful and wonderful toilets really are in their country.
The public toilets on the agency's list are architecturally distinctive, and from them visitors can view fjords, mountains and the northern lights.
Visit Norway's social media chief Yevgenia Yegorova told the AP news agency, laughing, that when life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade — and viral content.
Norway's list includes the 'Golden Toilet', or 'Golden Dasen', on the island of Senja. Trump himself has previously been caught up in a gold-toilet controversy. During his first term, when a Van Gogh painting was requested for the White House, a Guggenheim Museum curator instead offered him 'America', a toilet made of 18-carat solid gold, a satire on excessive wealth. It was stolen in 2019 while on display in the United Kingdom and has never been recovered.
