America first, Europe second: Spoof videos vie for Trump’s attention

A Dutch TV show’s comic message introducing the Netherlands to Donald Trump has spawned a series of copycat spoofs around Europe all clamouring “to be second” after the US president’s vow to make America first.

From Lithuania to Portugal and Switzerland, comedians and talk show hosts have followed in the footsteps of Dutch satirical television programme “Zondag met Lubach”, whose hilarious, tongue-in-cheek video has now been viewed over 17 million times.

First aired on Sunday January 22, the show’s host Arjen Lubach said “we decided to introduce our tiny country to him” in a bid to get along after Trump’s inauguration speech vowing to make “America First”.

With a voice-over imitating Trump’s clipped speaking tones and short phrases, the Dutch video promises among other things: “Dutch is the best language in Europe. We got all the best words. All the other languages failed.”

“Danish total disaster. German, it’s not even a real language. It’s fake. It’s a fake language.”

And after showing images of windmills and cheeses, it calls on Trump that if it’s “America First”, maybe it could be “The Netherlands second”?

Not to be outdone, six other European broadcasters have so far followed and made their own appeals now gathered on a website “Who wants to be second” with the Twitter hashtag #everysecondcounts.

America first, the Netherlands second

America first, Germany second

The German version hits back “that the Dutch are dangerous” adding “German culture is the best in the world” with images of the Oktoberfest.

But it skirts a bit close to the bone referencing Adolf Hitler, “his great hair, and his great suit… the media totally loved him.”

“Great guy, a total winner. His book? A bestseller. It’s true. Steve Bannon absolutely loves it,” it adds, referring to Trump’s chief strategist, former head of the rightwing Breitbart news site.

America first, Switzerland second

Some of the spoofs are more risqué — Switzerland promises it is “the sexiest country in Europe. Look at those mountains. Those big fat mountains.”

It also says it’s a country that “loves gold” and vows to keep Trump’s money safe.”

America first, Belgium second

In a not-so-subtle dig, the Belgians promise to dress up the country’s iconic Manneken Pis statue as a Russian prostitute, and lays claim to the Swedish pop-group ABBA as Belgian.

But the Belgians also say they’d be happy to be “tenth, whatever we don’t care” while the Lithuanians go for “third” after The Netherlands.