“Is this what my tax money is going to?”: Complicating the Trump Administration’s Fascination with Norway

This piece originally appeared on my blog on January 17, 2020. We wrote it in June 2019.

Before I left Norway last June, Brianne Jaquette and I worked on a piece that looked at the administration’s numerous references to Norway over the past few years. Just this past week, Mike Pompeo stated, “We just want Iran to behave more like a normal country, to be like Norway.” In this piece, Brianne and I argue that using Norway is a referent is much more sinister than just playing on the idea that Norway is “white.” It plays on Norwegian policies as well. For more on this, see Sindre Bangstad’s recent article “Far-Right Media Ecology in Norway.”

On June 21, Donald Trump tweeted a video that manipulated a Time magazine cover from October 2018. The original cover has campaign signs moving towards the top of the page with dates ranging from 2024–2044, and the article headline reads, “How Trumpism Outlasts Trump.” In Trump’s video, the camera moves past similar campaign signs that are dated every four years towards a 2048 sign with Trump standing over it. When the camera reaches the sign, the dates tick up exponentially before reading “Trump 4EVA.”