From what I've experienced here, it's just ego and not being able to handle hearing that another country might be better at something than America. I don't know how well known the burning of the original president's house even is here. I've only ever heard it talked about a handful of times, and always as a random bit of history trivia from a long time ago, I've never seen anyone get upset about it. But I've watched right-wing Americans get very defensive around the topic of Canadian healthcare my whole life. "That's communism, it doesn't work, did you know that Canadians pay half their salary in taxes and whatever other made up bullshit about Canada that Fox News told me." Narcissists don't like hearing that someone else is better at something than them and would rather start attacking than defending their position.
From what I've experienced here, it's just ego and not being able to handle hearing that another country might be better at something than America. I don't know how well known the burning of the original president's house even is here. I've only ever heard it talked about a handful of times, and always as a random bit of history trivia from a long time ago, I've never seen anyone get upset about it. But I've watched right-wing Americans get very defensive around the topic of Canadian healthcare my whole life. "That's communism, it doesn't work, did you know that Canadians pay half their salary in taxes and whatever other made up bullshit about Canada that Fox News told me." Narcissists don't like hearing that someone else is better at something than them and would rather start attacking than defending their position.