Trump would ‘nuke Denmark’, rival Cruz says

After blustery businessman Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz of having “illegally stole” the Iowa caucus victory, the Texas Senator responded that Trump is clearly “losing it” and went on to attack his opponent’s mental stability.

 

 

“I don’t know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the button. We’re liable to wake up one morning and Donald, if he were president, would have nuked Denmark. That’s not the temperament of a leader to keep this country safe,” the conservative senator added. 

 

The imagined nuclear annihilation in Denmark is not the first time the small Nordic country has found itself unwittingly dragged in to the US presidential race. 

 

In the first Democratic debate, Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both addressed the merits of bringing a Danish-style system to the US. 

 

See also: Denmark centre stage in US presidential debate

 

Sanders talked about inequality in America, the lack of parental leave and problems with the US health care system and said the country should follow the lead of the Nordic nations. 

 

“I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people,” Sanders, an outspoken proponent of adopting some form of the ‘Nordic model’, said. 

 

Clinton agreed that the US faces a myriad of problems, but distanced herself from Sanders’s calls to emulate Scandinavia.

 

“But we are not Denmark. I love Denmark. We are the United States of America. And it’s our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn’t run amok and doesn’t cause the kind of inequities we’re seeing in our economic system,” she said.  

 

In the most recent Republican debate, it was Sweden’s turn to get thrown into the fray with Florida Senator Marco Rubio taking a jab at Sanders. 

 

“Bernie Sanders is a socialist. I think Bernie Sanders is a good candidate for president – of Sweden,” Rubio said to laughter from the audience. 

 

See also: Swedish royalists up in arms over US politician's blunder

 

Sweden, of course, has no president  and a leading commentator on the Swedish royals used the gaffe to slam the US political class. 

 

“The thing with some American politicians, such as Sarah Palin, is – I don’t want to use the word stupid, but I do. They are. They are so ignorant about the rest of the world. They think there are two monarchies in the world. And that’s the UK and Monaco, because of Grace Kelly,” Roger Lundgren, editor of Sweden’s Kungliga (Royal) magazine, told The Local.