- Thousands sign petition against Trump's Iceland ambassador nominee.
- Nominee joked Iceland should be 52nd U.S. state.
- Petition expresses public anger over controversial remark.
The news outlet Politico reported that it had heard rumors about another Nordic island on Wednesday, just hours before senior officials from Greenland and Denmark were scheduled to meet with the US in an attempt to thwart Trump's threats to take the Arctic island.
In Reykjavík, the response was quick. Iceland's foreign ministry said it has asked the US embassy for an explanation in a statement to the Guardian.
“We heard that former Rep Billy Long, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Iceland, joked to members on the floor last night that Iceland will be the 52nd state and he’ll be governor,”
Politico wrote in its morning newsletter.
“The ministry for foreign affairs contacted the US embassy in Iceland to verify the veracity of the alleged comments,”
it said.
In a petition calling on Iceland’s foreign minister, Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, to reject Long as ambassador to the country, critics said:
“These words, spoken by Billy Long, whom Donald Trump has nominated as ambassador to Iceland, may have been said in jest. Still, they are offensive to Iceland and the Icelandic people, who have had to fight for their freedom and have always been a friend to the United States,”
the petition read.
More than 3,200 people signed the petition within hours of its debut, supporting the demand that the US "nominate another person who shows greater respect for Iceland and the Icelandic people."
In an interview with the regional news website Arctic Today on Wednesday, Long reportedly expressed regret for the comments.
Given the tensions surrounding Greenland, Sigmar Guðmundsson, an MP for Iceland whose centrist Liberal Reform party is a member of the country's ruling coalition, called the comments "not a particularly funny joke" on Thursday.
“It goes without saying that this is extremely serious for a small country like Iceland,”
he told the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið.
“We must realise that all the security arguments that the Americans cite regarding Greenland also apply to Iceland. This is about the location of these two islands.”
What has Iceland's government officially said about the remarks?
Iceland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs communicated with the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík on January 14, 2026, to corroborate the veracity of Billy Long's contended" 52nd state" joke, as no evidence came from Long or the U.S. government at that time.
The ministry stated it's" examining the probity of the contended commentary" attributed to the minister designee during his House meeting, amid public counterreaction and a solicitation nearing 3,000 autographs prompting rejection of his appointment.
Viðreisn MP Sigmar Guðmundsson raised the issue in congress, calling the reflections serious given Arctic sovereignty pressures around Greenland, stressing Iceland's need to cover its independence as a NATO supporter.