Foreign minister calls Trump’s post ‘absurd’ and insulting
The Monday social media post showed a map of North America overlaid with the U.S. flag; the image included Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. Trump did not include an explanation with the post and has not referenced it elsewhere, according to United Press International.
Gunnarsdóttir told reporters at a Tuesday press conference that the image was insulting to Icelanders and to the people of Greenland and Canada.
“There is nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states,” she said. “If this is supposed to be a joke, then it is a bad joke.”
The Icelandic foreign ministry had summoned Long to make clear that the post was “completely inappropriate,” UPI reported.
Long, a former Missouri lawmaker and former IRS commissioner, took up his post in May after his nomination drew opposition in Iceland. In January he apologized for joking that Iceland could become the 52nd U.S. state with himself as governor, a comment that prompted an Icelandic petition against his ambassadorship.
The flag image arrived in a country already wary of Washington. Since Trump began pushing to annex Greenland — Iceland’s closest neighbor — Icelanders have grown distrustful of the United States. Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said the territory is not for sale and that Greenlanders do not want to become American. Trump has at times confused Greenland with Iceland.
Eirikur Bergmann, a politics professor at Bifrost University in Iceland, described the flag image as part of a broader rhetorical shift.
“Icelanders are used to looking toward the U.S. as Iceland’s defender,” he told The New York Times. “Now, our protector has become our intimidator.”
Iceland occupies a singular position within NATO. It is the only alliance member without a standing military, relying instead on a coast guard. Last month, Icelandic voters rejected a referendum on restarting European Union membership talks.