- 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.
