Iceland Summons U.S. Ambassador After Trump Shares American Flag Post

Iceland summoned the U.S. ambassador on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump posted an image on Truth Social showing the north Atlantic island and other countries covered ​by the American flag, according to local media RUV.

Trump’s Labor Day post depicted the ‌United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, the whole of Central America and the Caribbean covered by the stars and stripes banner, with the entire landmass labeled “United States of America.” The image was shared without comment by the president.

Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Gunnarsdottir called in ​Billy Long, the U.S. ambassador to Iceland, who is new to the role, having formally taken ⁠up the post in August, according to RUV.

“The position was clearly expressed that ​the post was completely inappropriate,” the foreign ministry told RUV.

‘The 52nd State’

Former Missouri Congressman Long joked in January that Iceland would become the 52nd U.S. state and that he might be appointed governor.

During his Senate confirmation hearing for the ambassadorial post in February, Long acknowledged this was a mistake, but said he was not being serious.

“It was like a three-way [conversation]. Somebody said something, somebody else said something, and yes, I did add the part about the 52nd state, which was totally inappropriate. But it was not something that I said as a pronouncement that was serious,” he said.

“I just hope that the people in Iceland will give me a second chance to make a first impression,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for them. They have a beautiful country—700,000 Americans go there every year. I hope I can get that up to a million by the time my term’s up.”

(Left) Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at a joint press conference on July 11, 2019, at the Chancellery in Berlin and (Right) U.S. President Donald Trump before boarding Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, on Aug. 18, 2019. Tobias Schwarz and Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

Tensions Over Greenland

Supporters of restarting EU accession talks pointed to the changing international security environment, including uncertainty surrounding Iceland’s long-standing defense relationship with the United States.

Danish Prime ​Minister Mette ⁠Frederiksen told Danish news agency Ritzau in Nuuk that the Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people “have ⁠said ​again and again that they do not want ​to be American.”

“I hope no one is in any doubt about that, either in the ​United States or the rest of the world,” she said, while on a visit to Greenland alongside von der Leyen and the Arctic island’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

Demonstrators wave Icelandic flags during a rally against reopening Iceland's European Union accession negotiations in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Aug. 27, 2026, two days ahead of a national referendum. Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

Trump’s ‘Verbal Stumble’ at Davos

In January, addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump appeared to mix up Greenland with Iceland several times, saying that Iceland had cost the United States a lot of money due to a drop in the stock market.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said that Trump had misspoken and said Iceland when he meant Greenland, saying, “I think we’re all familiar with presidents that have verbal stumbles. We’ve had presidents like that before. Some made a lot more than this one.”

In 2016, an addendum was made to the Iceland–U.S. defense agreement which was neither publicly discussed nor published in Iceland when it was signed, according to RUV, which reported on it last year.

The addendum gives the U.S. military and its contractors unrestricted access to Iceland’s defense areas for the purposes of defending the island, which is sparsely populated with about 393,000 people.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.