He’s at it again: using Sweden as an object lesson in the dangers of foreign immigration. ‘So, Sweden was known as the safest country in Europe, one of the safest countries in the world. Now it’s known as a very unsafe — well, pretty unsafe country. It’s not even believable.’ That was Trump on Monday. (See https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/trump-om-sverige-ett-helt-nytt-land.)

He’s done this before; that is, picked on Sweden out of all the European countries to back up his right-wing views (https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2017/march/sweden-who-would-believe-this-sweden). He’s right that it’s ‘not even believable’ – because it’s not true. I’ve lived in Sweden, on and off, for the past thirty years, and have always felt safe here. I felt immeasurably less safe when I lived in the USA. All the evidence points to this – relative crime rates, for example. Trump’s is a belief – if he really does believe it – founded on fakery; probably what he sees on Fox News. Sweden is targeted by the likes of Trump because it’s (relatively) liberal and social-democratic; and so according to his prejudices shouldn’t work. London is the same, which he is why he’s continually insulting its Moslem Mayor. His only European exception is Hungary, whose semi-Fascist premier he says he gets on well with. He sees the rest of the continent as ‘weak’, about to embrace Sharia law, and in terminal decline.

Today I’ve been following the Nobel Prize celebrations on TV. It’s a big thing in Sweden, almost as big as the Eurovision Song Contest, and probably in Norway too. (Norway of course awards the Peace Prize.) SVT carried an interview beforehand with an American ex-Nobel laureate, who said that she loved coming to a country where they celebrate Science and Peace; as, she implied, Trump doesn’t. (Does the fact that Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the far-right and pro-Trump Sweden Democrats, refused to attend, have anything to do with this? Too ‘woke’?) Yesterday there was a documentary on TV about ABBA, where Benny was asked why, with all his riches, he preferred to live in Sweden, which has (or had) an upper tax rate of 85%; to which he replied that he was entirely comfortable with this, in view of the social benefits that higher taxes brought. Whatever you may think of Mama Mia, this is surely another good reason to support them.