Trump Calls Norway a "Shithouse Country" at Port Huron Rally, Citing Nobel Peace Prize Snub

President Donald Trump added Norway to a list of countries he has described in vulgar terms, telling a midterm campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday, October 25, 2026, that the Scandinavian nation had become a "shit house country" because its Nobel committee has not awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize. The remarks, reported by Reuters, immediately became one of the most widely shared moments of the final stretch of the 2026 midterm campaign — and they drew a swift, if indirect, response in the form of international headlines, even as Norway's government and the Nobel committee itself had not immediately commented.

Trump made the comments at McMorran Place Arena in Port Huron, a border city in Michigan's Thumb region, where he had traveled to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and other Michigan Republicans nine days before Election Day on November 3. The rally was already historic — Trump is the first sitting president ever to visit Port Huron — and it was already controversial, after Trump used a pre-rally social media post to attack Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. The Norway remarks added a foreign-policy dimension to a rally that was supposed to be about Michigan's Senate race, and they quickly overshadowed much of the rest of the evening's program.

What Trump Said in Port Huron

According to Reuters, Trump told the Port Huron crowd that he would welcome immigrants from some countries but not from Norway, explicitly tying the exclusion to the Nobel Peace Prize. "Because I didn't get the Nobel Prize... So I don't want anybody from Norway," Trump said, as reported by Reuters.

He went further, applying to Norway a vulgar label he has previously used for other nations. "Norway has become a shit house country, actually," Trump said, according to Reuters.

The remarks were delivered in the context of a broader riff on immigration. Trump attributed recent unrest in France to immigration, Reuters reported, and used that as a springboard for a country-by-country discussion of which immigrants he would welcome. Norway, he said, would not make the cut — not because of any immigration policy dispute, Reuters noted, but because of the Nobel Prize.

Reuters also reported that there was no indication that the Trump administration was adopting any new official policy on Norwegian immigrants. The remarks, in other words, were campaign rhetoric at a political rally, not an announced change in immigration rules. That distinction matters, because presidential remarks about barring nationals of a specific country can carry diplomatic weight even when they are not formal policy — and Norway is a NATO ally, not an adversary.

The Nobel Prize Grievance

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member body based in Oslo, Norway's capital. The committee's decisions are independent of the Norwegian government, a point that has been made repeatedly by Norwegian officials and by the committee itself in past years when American politicians have lobbied for the prize.

Trump has spoken openly about wanting the Nobel Peace Prize, and his supporters have campaigned for it. The grievance has become a recurring theme of his second term: the president has pointed to ceasefires and peace agreements he says his administration helped broker, and has argued that those achievements merit the prize. The committee, which announces its decision each October, has not selected him.

The Port Huron remarks were notable because they connected the Nobel grievance directly to immigration policy rhetoric — suggesting that a personal disappointment over an award should determine whether people from an entire country are welcome in the United States. That framing drew attention precisely because it was so explicit: Trump did not merely criticize the committee's judgment, he said the snub was the reason Norwegians should not come.

It is also worth noting what the Nobel committee has not done: Reuters reported that Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a representative for the Norwegian Nobel Committee did not immediately return requests for comment outside regular office hours. The absence of an immediate official response left the story, in its first hours, driven entirely by Trump's own words and by international news coverage of them.

A Familiar Insult, a New Target

The Port Huron remarks were not the first time Trump has used this particular vulgar term for a country. Reuters noted that he has previously applied it to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — a list that dates back to remarks during his first term that drew international condemnation in 2018 and have been referenced ever since.

What made the Norway addition striking was the contrast. Norway is among the highest-income countries in the world as measured by GDP per capita, according to International Monetary Fund data cited by Reuters. Its sovereign wealth fund — the world's largest — posted a record profit of 1.75 trillion Norwegian crowns, about $184.3 billion, for the first half of 2026, Reuters reported. Norway is also a founding member of NATO and a close security partner of the United States, with American and Norwegian forces cooperating extensively in the Arctic and the North Atlantic.

In other words, the countries previously on Trump's list were nations grappling with conflict, poverty or state collapse. Norway is one of the world's wealthiest, most stable democracies. That contrast is part of why the remarks traveled so fast: they did not fit the usual pattern of the insult, and the stated reason — a prize decided by a committee in Oslo — was personal rather than geopolitical.

The timing also mattered. Trump had used the same term for Libya just one day earlier, at a rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday, October 24, where he described Libya, Yemen, Haiti and Somalia as "terror-infested" countries in an attack on Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff. That Georgia remark itself triggered a diplomatic response: Libya's foreign ministry summoned the U.S. charge d'affaires on Sunday to protest. The Norway remarks, delivered the next day, suggested the pattern was not a one-off but a closing-argument rhetorical theme of the final campaign weekend.

The Port Huron Backdrop: A Rally About Michigan

The irony of the Norway story is that the Port Huron rally was not supposed to be about foreign policy at all. It was a Michigan rally, staged in a border city that sits directly across the St. Clair River from Sarnia, Ontario, connected by the Blue Water Bridge. Trump chose Port Huron to boost Rogers in the open-seat Senate race against El-Sayed, and to support Republican gubernatorial candidate John James, who is running against Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to succeed term-limited Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

The rally drew an estimated crowd of about 3,000 inside the arena, according to the Detroit Free Press, and Trump used the stage to repeat several of his closing campaign messages: a pledge to send $5,000 checks to all American adults, but only if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate; a defense of higher gas prices as "a small price to pay" for ensuring Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon; and a prediction that the U.S. trade and tariff war with Canada would soon end favorably for the United States.

Trump also repeated his message that supporters should vote in the midterms as if he himself were on the ballot — a line he has used throughout the 2026 campaign. But his historically low approval ratings have complicated that message: the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll put his approval at a record-low 31 percent, and Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot 47 percent to 35 percent, their widest lead of the cycle. Some Republican candidates in competitive races have tried to distance themselves from the president even as he campaigns for them.

The Norway remarks, then, landed in a campaign environment where every rally moment is scrutinized for its effect on persuadable voters. Supporters in the arena cheered the rally's attacks on Democrats and its promises on checks and tariffs. But the Norway comments were the ones that led international news coverage the next morning — a reminder that in the final days of a campaign, a president's rally remarks are heard far beyond the arena.

What the Remarks Mean — and What They Don't

It is important to separate three things about the Port Huron remarks: what was said, what it signals, and what it changes.

What was said is documented by Reuters: Trump called Norway a "shit house country" and said Norwegian immigrants are not welcome because he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

What it signals is a campaign in its final, most combative phase. Trump has now used the same vulgar framing for two countries in two days, at rallies in two different states, each time tying the insult to a domestic political target — Ossoff in Georgia, the Nobel committee in Michigan. The pattern suggests the rhetoric is deliberate, not accidental, and that it is part of the closing message to the Republican base.

What it changes, at least immediately, is less clear. Reuters reported no indication of a new official policy on Norwegian immigrants. Norway's government had not formally responded in the first hours after the remarks. And the midterm campaign's fundamentals — the generic ballot, the president's approval rating, the state of the Senate map — did not shift on the basis of a single rally line. But diplomatic incidents have a way of accumulating: Libya's formal protest over the Georgia remarks showed that foreign governments do respond, and Norway's response, when it comes, will be watched as a measure of how much damage a rally line can do to an alliance relationship.

What's Next

Several things will determine how long the Norway story lasts. First, whether Norway's government or the Nobel committee issues a formal response — a rebuke, a dismissal, or silence each carries its own message. Second, whether the White House or the Trump campaign clarifies the remarks, or whether Trump repeats them at his next rally. Third, whether the story bleeds into the Michigan Senate race itself: Rogers and El-Sayed are competing in a toss-up race, and both campaigns will be watching whether voters in a border city that lives off cross-border commerce react to a president insulting a close ally.

The broader campaign moves on regardless. With eight days until Election Day, Trump is expected to continue his rally blitz, and both parties are focused on turning out early voters — more than 26.8 million ballots had already been cast as of October 25. The Norway remarks will likely fade from the domestic campaign conversation within days, as new rally moments replace them. But they will remain part of the record of the 2026 campaign's final weekend: the moment a sitting president told a Michigan crowd that a Nobel snub was reason enough to shut the door on an entire country.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly did Trump say about Norway? At a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on October 25, 2026, Trump said Norway had become a "shit house country" and that he did not want anybody from Norway because he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, according to Reuters.

Who awards the Nobel Peace Prize? The Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member body based in Oslo, Norway's capital. The committee operates independently of the Norwegian government.

Has Trump used this language about other countries before? Yes. Reuters noted that he has previously applied the same term to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, including in remarks during his first term.

Does this mean Norwegians are now barred from immigrating to the United States? No. Reuters reported there was no indication that the Trump administration was adopting any new official policy on Norwegian immigrants. The remarks were made at a campaign rally.

How did Norway respond? Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a representative for the Norwegian Nobel Committee did not immediately return Reuters' requests for comment outside regular office hours.

Why was Trump in Port Huron? He was campaigning for Michigan Republicans ahead of the November 3 midterms, including Senate candidate Mike Rogers and gubernatorial candidate John James. He is the first sitting president ever to visit Port Huron.

SOURCES: Reuters, "Trump adds Norway to vulgar list of countries, citing Nobel snub" (October 26, 2026); Detroit Free Press, "Trump fires up Republicans in Port Huron rally amid midterm push" (October 25, 2026); Reuters/Ipsos poll data as reported October 2026.