Visit Norway launches viral campaign featuring scenic restrooms after Trump insult

President Donald Trump called Norway a shithouse country during a campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday. The U.S. state-run tourism agency Visit Norway responded by publishing a guide to the country's most spectacular public restrooms.

The new campaign, titled Norway makes shithouses great again, went viral this week. It features a collection of award-winning water closets located across the Norwegian landscape. The agency posted the guide on social media to directly address the president's comments.

Trump made the remarks while addressing a crowd ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. He said, Norway has become a shithouse country, actually. This was not his first critical comment regarding the Scandinavian nation or its Nobel Committee.

The rhetoric intensified after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to international jurist Navi Pillay earlier this month. Trump has long expressed a desire for the Nobel Prize but has doubted the committee would ever grant it to him.

The new tourism guide highlights specific structures that combine functionality with scenic views. One featured restroom is the Stegastein viewpoint facility. It sits on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Aurlandsfjord. A large window allows the user to see the view while preventing onlookers from peeking in. DesignCurial ranked this toilet No. 1 on its list of the world's 10 best public toilets in 2015.

Another featured location is the Gulldassen, or Golden Toilet, on Senja Island. Built in 2014, the triangular restroom has become a popular rest stop for tourists. Evgenia Egorova, the social media lead for Visit Norway, told The Associated Press that her team had produced similar content for World Toilet Day, which is scheduled for Nov. 19. She said the team was delighted to repurpose the material for this specific moment.

Egorova said the reaction to the new campaign has been overwhelmingly positive. When life gives you lemons or quotes like this, you just do the lemonade, and all the viral content, she said with a laugh on Friday. The agency noted that the toilets in the guide are architectural marvels, some of which have won international awards.

Trump's comments echo similar remarks he made in 2018. At that time, he referred to Haiti and African nations as shithole countries. Those vulgar remarks drew widespread condemnation globally. He stated at the time that he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway.

The president has a history of interacting with golden toilet art. A golden toilet was installed on the National Mall earlier this year by a resistance art group to protest White House renovations. During his first term, a request to borrow a Van Gogh painting for the White House private quarters led to a cheeky offer from the Guggenheim Museum. The museum's chief curator suggested borrowing an 18-karat solid gold toilet titled America by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.

That specific artwork was later displayed at Blenheim Palace in the U.K., the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Prosecutors described the 2019 theft of the latrine as an audacious raid. Two thieves were convicted last year, but the stolen item has never been found.