Circular seal with American flag reading 'America First, The Netherlands Second'

The Netherlands Second

2017viral videoclassic

Published October 1, 2026

The Netherlands Second is a satirical video first aired by Dutch late-night show Zondag met Lubach on January 23, 2017, pitching the Netherlands to Donald Trump in a dead-on impression of his own voice1. The clip pulled over 15 million views in its first week and set off a wave of copycat 'Every Second Counts' videos from Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and dozens of other countries racing to be number two3.

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Overview

The Netherlands Second is a mock promotional film in which a Donald Trump impersonator guides the newly inaugurated U.S. president through Dutch landmarks, inventions and oddities while aping his cadence, hand gestures and favorite phrases1. The joke works on two levels: it skewers Trump's 'America First' rhetoric by begging him to accept the Netherlands as runner-up, and it stuffs the pitch with absurd nationalist bragging about dikes, windmills, Zwarte Piet and the Dutch Bible Belt in the exact register Trump uses for American superlatives2.

The voiceover was supplied by Chicago-born, Amsterdam-based comedian Greg Shapiro, whose Trump impression anchors the entire bit2. The format is intentionally portable: a travelogue voiceover, a montage of national trivia, and a closing plea to put '[Country] Second' after 'America First.' That modular structure is what let dozens of other countries copy the sketch almost line for line within weeks3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Dutch television (VPRO) / YouTube (viral spread)
Key People
Zondag met Lubach
Date
2017

The sketch was produced by Dutch public-broadcasting show Zondag met Lubach (Sunday with Lubach), hosted by comedian Arjen Lubach on VPRO. On January 23, 2017, three days after Trump's inauguration, the show's official YouTube channel uploaded the video under the title 'The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words'1.

The Trump voice was performed by American expat impressionist Greg Shapiro, who told Vanity Fair that the writers packed the script with specifically Trumpian tics such as 'tremendous,' 'believe me' and 'the best' before layering them over Dutch stock footage2. Lubach himself appears at the end asking Trump to recognize the Netherlands as his second priority, framing the whole piece as a formal diplomatic appeal.

How It Spread

Within a week of posting, the Zondag met Lubach video pulled over 15 million views on YouTube and Facebook combined and became one of the most-shared Dutch TV clips ever3. Clones showed up almost immediately. German satirist Jan Böhmermann answered on Neo Magazin Royale with 'Germany Second,' slotting Oktoberfest, the Autobahn and the Berlin Wall into the same template4. Böhmermann's team then launched everysecondcounts.eu, a submission site collecting versions from Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Portugal, Lithuania, Morocco and more5.

Mainstream U.S. press picked up the story about two weeks in. On February 7, 2017, Vanity Fair ran a profile of Greg Shapiro and Sean Streeter, the two American impressionists voicing most of the 'Second' videos, treating the chain as the first viral international backlash to Trump's foreign policy posture2. Fine Brothers Entertainment folded the Dutch original into a 'Teens React' episode, which pushed the clip to a younger American audience6.

The wave also had offline effects inside the Netherlands. Theme park Attractiepark Slagharen, name-checked in the video, reported a traffic spike to its website after airing7, and Dutch crooner Lee Towers, mocked in the sketch as a 'tremendous singer,' saw a jump in show reservations8.

Timeline

2017-01-20

Donald Trump is inaugurated as U.S. president, delivering the 'America First' speech the sketch answers.

2017-01-23

Zondag met Lubach uploads 'The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words' to YouTube.

2017-01-30

The video crosses 15 million combined views and country-specific parodies begin appearing, including Jan Böhmermann's 'Germany Second' on Neo Magazin Royale.

2017-02

Böhmermann's team launches everysecondcounts.eu as a hub for incoming '[Country] Second' submissions.

2017-02-07

Vanity Fair publishes an interview with impressionists Greg Shapiro and Sean Streeter, the voices behind most of the videos.

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