President Donald Trump has attacked what he calls sick people spreading wild conspiracy theories about him, adding fuel to a transatlantic fire that’s already scorched at least one Danish politician. The incident highlights how American political chaos doesn’t stay in America anymore. It lands here, gets amplified by Danish voices, and forces a reckoning with how easily conspiracy thinking crosses borders.
I’ve watched Denmark grapple with American political madness for years now, but this feels different. Trump’s latest outburst, as reported by TV2, targets people promoting unfounded theories that he staged assassination attempts on himself. The theories spread fast on social media, as they always do. What makes this story worth your attention is that it’s not just Americans falling for it.
When Danish Politicians Share American Conspiracy Theories
Last week, Stine Bosse, a Moderaterne politician, endorsed the very conspiracy theory Trump now rails against. She posted on X suggesting Trump might have staged an attempt on his own life. The backlash came swift and brutal. Henrik Qvortrup and Joachim B. Olsen, two political commentators not known for mincing words, called it total tinfoil hat territory on their B.T. podcast. Bosse deleted the post, but not before over 1,700 people retweeted it.
This is the part that sticks with me. A mainstream Danish politician, not some fringe figure, thought this theory was credible enough to share publicly. That says something uncomfortable about how Trump related misinformation has seeped into European political discourse. The line between skepticism and conspiracy has gotten thinner, and politicians are tripping over it.
For those of us who’ve made Denmark home, this hits differently. We came here partly to escape the exhausting circus of American politics. But the circus follows. It sets up tent in Danish social media. It infects Danish political debate. You can’t escape it by crossing an ocean anymore.
Denmark’s Own History With Wild Theories
Denmark isn’t innocent in the conspiracy game. The country has its own dark history with this stuff. In the 1930s and 1940s, Wilfred Petersen’s Dansk Samlingsparti spread theories about Jewish infiltration of Danish politics and secret SS agreements for the occupation. They created Ligaen specifically to push antisemitic conspiracy theories targeting named Danish Jews. The Rostock meeting theory claimed Danish politicians had pre arranged the 1940 occupation with the German SS.
These weren’t just fringe whispers. They built subcultures, influenced neo Nazi groups after the war, and poisoned political discourse for generations. The structural thinking is identical to modern conspiracies. Nothing happens by accident. Everything connects. There’s always a hidden villain pulling strings.
During COVID, Danish conspiracy theories flourished online. Videos circulated claiming an empty Holbæk Sygehus proved the pandemic was fake. The truth was simpler and more boring. COVID patients were being treated elsewhere. Region Sjælland confirmed it, but the damage was done. People who wanted to believe in orchestrated crises and financial manipulation found their evidence, however flimsy.
Why People Believe This Stuff
Danish folklore researchers have found something fascinating. The narrative structure of old folk tales about witches and cursed cows mirrors modern conspiracy theories. There’s always one super villain. One evil force explains everything bad that happens. American researchers confirm that conspiracies psychologically require a singular culprit. Complex events get compressed into simple stories of good versus evil.
This explains why Trump theories spread so effectively, even among educated Danes. They offer clarity in a chaotic world. They provide someone to blame. For expats navigating both American and Danish news cycles, this double exposure to conspiracy culture feels overwhelming sometimes.
Recent research offers a sliver of hope. A 2026 Science study showed AI chatbots reduced conspiracy beliefs by 20 percent on average, with effects spilling over to unrelated theories. The study tested beliefs about 9/11, COVID, and U.S. elections. Whether this scales to real world interventions remains uncertain, but it suggests conspiracy thinking isn’t necessarily permanent.
The Cost of Cross Border Conspiracy
What worries me most is the normalization. When Danish politicians share American conspiracy theories without obvious consequences beyond deleting a post, it signals that this behavior isn’t career ending anymore. It’s just embarrassing. That’s not enough of a deterrent.
The 2015 and 2016 election cycles saw fake news explode in both Denmark and America. Stories about the Pope supporting Trump or fabricated scandals about Danish politicians spread like wildfire. Established media sometimes amplified junk news instead of debunking it. The patterns haven’t changed. The infrastructure for spreading lies has only gotten more sophisticated.
Trump calling out sick people for promoting conspiracies about him carries obvious irony, given his own history with unfounded claims. But he’s tapped into something real. These theories do harm. They erode trust in institutions. They make informed political debate nearly impossible. They cross borders and infect new audiences who lack the context to evaluate them critically.
Living in Denmark means watching this slow motion collision between American political chaos and Danish civic culture. So far, Danish institutions have held up better than their American counterparts. But the Bosse incident proves no one is immune. The question isn’t whether conspiracy theories will keep flowing across the Atlantic. They will. The question is whether Danish society can build better filters before they do more damage.
Sources and References
The Danish Dream: How to Move to Denmark from USA Without Stress
The Danish Dream: Trump’s Greenland Remarks Spark Danish Outrage
The Danish Dream: Why Does Trump Want Greenland? What You Need to Know
TV2: Trump angriber syge personer der deler vild konspirationsteori
