Norway apparently needs to work on its customer service. The customer is the president of another country, and the missing service is a peace prize.

Reuters reports that Trump said at Sunday's Michigan rally that he did not want immigrants from Norway because he had not received the Nobel Peace Prize. There was no indication of a new official immigration policy. His remarks were nonetheless a remarkably efficient way to make a personal disappointment everybody else's nationality problem.

Ordinarily, not winning an award leaves you with several options. You can congratulate the winner. You can disagree with the judges. You can quietly rearrange the shelf so the gap looks intentional.

Treating the population of an entire country as the complaints department is a more ambitious approach. It does have the advantage of saving you from identifying a specific person who actually owes you a trophy.

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The premise is childish; the office expressing it is not. A president's talk about who is welcome carries weight even when it does not become a regulation. People should not have to keep a running chart distinguishing a government's position from its leader's latest disappointment in the hospitality industry.

And if the attraction of a peace prize is that it would recognize diplomatic achievement, making international relations contingent on receiving it introduces a small design flaw. The demonstration of temperament is now working against the application.

Imagine applying that standard to any ordinary award. The gracious acceptance speech is apparently something the organizers must provide the prize in order to unlock. Until then, everyone born near the ceremony is on probation.

Norwegians do not owe the American president a performance of appreciation. They have their own lives, which is inconsiderate of them but remains legal.

The shelf may have an empty space. The world is not required to climb into it.