Eva Hamilton, the former CEO of Sweden’s public television broadcaster SVT, has claimed that no one in Sweden likes U.S. President Donald J. Trump and that Swedes view him as dangerous.
Ms Hamilton made her comments on Friday on Swedish television after reports revealed that President Trump had tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus along with First Lady Melania Trump.
She told the presenters of TV4’s Nyhetsmorgon programme that the infection could end up benefitting the U.S. leader going into next month’s presidential election.
“I think he’s going to win this. Assuming he survives,” Hamilton said, according to Nyheter Idag.
Hamilton went on to compare President Trump to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who also contracted the virus earlier this year and survived the encounter with only mild symptoms.
“I’m afraid, we’ll probably have to say that he’s going to make it and I’m afraid this will benefit him greatly,” Hamilton said. She went on to add: “In Sweden, there is a kind of consensus that Trump is dangerous and an idiot… No one likes Trump in Sweden.”
The former SVT CEO added she did not understand why so many in the United States supported the President, musing that his supporters may just support his tax-cutting policies.
President Trump has also criticised Sweden in recent years, particularly the Swedish government’s immigration policy. In 2017, President Trump tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!”
While many in the media in the United States and elsewhere have defended Sweden’s immigration policy since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, more recently mainstream media outlets have admitted the surging problem with gang crime violence engulfing the country.
For years, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven also denied any connection between mass migration and growing crime rates. But last month he admitted that there had been a connection to migration and the rise of ethnic clan gangs in various areas of the country.