Donald Trump told a Michigan rally crowd that Norway sucks and has become a shithouse country, venting after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2026 Peace Prize to someone else entirely. The president said he no longer wants immigrants from Norway, a stark reversal from his first-term remarks describing the Scandinavian nation as exactly the kind of place the United States should be drawing newcomers from.
Trump made the remarks at a campaign event in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday, according to Bloomberg. “Frankly Norway sucks. Norway has become a ‘s—-house’-country, actually,” he told supporters, before adding that he did not want anybody from Norway coming to the United States. The outburst came 16 days after the Norwegian Nobel Committee bypassed Trump for the 2026 prize, instead honoring South African jurist and former United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay on October 9.
Pillay has served as a judge on South Africa’s High Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which said it chose her for her efforts to promote peace and international law. The prize is formally awarded in Oslo. Trump has made no secret of coveting the honor since returning to the White House in January 2025, as The Times of Israel has reported, and he has previously called the snub an indelible stain on Norway and claimed the prize itself had been discredited by radical ideologues.
Norway Says Trump Is Aiming at the Wrong Target
Norwegian officials pushed back on the idea that the government bears any responsibility for the committee's choice. Per the New York Times, officials emphasized that the Norwegian government has no influence over who receives the Peace Prize. France24 reported there was no official indication of any new U.S. policy on Norwegian immigrants despite Trump's rally comments.
On the social platform X, journalist Alberto Nardelli shared a statement attributed to Norway's leadership addressing the dispute directly: “Regarding the Nobel Peace Prize, I have several times clearly explained to Trump what is well known, namely that it is an independent Nobel Committee, and not the Norwegian government, that awards the prize.” The distinction matters structurally: the Norwegian Nobel Committee is composed of five members appointed by Norway's parliament, the Storting, and operates separately from the sitting government, according to Nobel's own nomination guidelines.
That same body chooses laureates through a majority vote at the start of October, and its decision is final and without appeal, the Nobel Prize organization notes. This year the Norwegian Nobel Institute had registered 287 candidates for the prize, including 208 individuals and 79 organizations, before narrowing the field to Pillay.
Trump's War-Settling Claims Face Scrutiny
At the rally, Trump repeated his long-running argument that he deserved the prize for diplomatic achievements, telling the crowd he had settled eight wars and had two more coming, per Bloomberg's reporting. But a CNN review of his eight-conflict tally found five of the items were either nonexistent, ongoing, or had resumed since any deal was struck. CNN specifically reported that Egypt and Ethiopia never fought a war over the Ethiopian dam project, remaining instead in a tense diplomatic standoff, and that a Trump-brokered peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo had not actually ended that conflict.
Wealth was also part of the subtext of Trump's broadside. Norway ranks among the world's highest-income countries by GDP per capita, according to International Monetary Fund data cited by the Lufkin Daily News, and its sovereign wealth fund posted a record $184.3 billion profit in the first half of 2026. France24 noted that Trump faced similar criticism during his first term for using comparable vulgar language about Haiti and certain African nations — a notable contrast to his posture toward Norway, when he described it as a country the U.S. should welcome more immigrants from.
For now, the dispute remains a rhetorical one. No Norwegian government source has detailed the full substance of any private exchange with Trump beyond the public statement shared on social media, and no agency has confirmed any shift in immigration policy toward Norwegian citizens following the rally remarks.
