President Donald Trump is on thin ice with Iceland after he posted a map that showed the American flag superimposed onto Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Mexico, and much of the Caribbean.
Iceland’s leaders summoned U.S. Ambassador Billy Long for a formal rebuke on Monday and publicly condemned the social media post on Tuesday.
“It is an insult to Icelanders, Canadians, Greenlanders,” Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir told reporters. “There is nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states, especially today, when sovereignty cannot be taken for granted.”
TIME has reached out to the White House and the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik for comment.
While Trump has not publicly proposed taking over Iceland before, the map marks his latest provocation involving the expansion of U.S. control over foreign territory.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his ambition to bring Greenland, Iceland’s closest neighbor and an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, under U.S. control, citing its strategic position and concerns about Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic. He said in January, soon after the U.S. deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, that anything short of U.S. control of Greenland was “unacceptable”—to the vexation of world leaders, not least those in the European Union, Denmark, and Greenland. He initially declined to rule out using military force, although in January, he said, “I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force.” During the same speech, the President confused Iceland with Greenland, saying “Iceland has already cost us a lot of money” in reference to a stock market dip.
Trump has also similarly advocated making Canada, now embroiled in a trade war with the U.S., the 51st state. While Trump has repeatedly joked about the matter, he said in February last year that the idea to annex Canada was “a real thing.” He said he would use “economic force,” rather than military force, to pressure the U.S. neighbor.
Trump officials have continued the rhetoric. Last month, Vice President J.D. Vance called Canada a “state” before apologizing for the “Freudian slip.” In March, Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney the country’s “future governor.” And Trump ordered Lake Ontario, which borders the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. State of New York, renamed “Lake America” for official U.S. use, drawing sharp criticism from Canadian leaders.
Trump has also floated a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, one of the Caribbean nations blanketed by the American flag on the map he posted, and renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” On Monday, Trump posted several other maps on Truth Social showing the U.S. state of New Mexico renamed as “New America.”
Iceland’s sovereignty has been a prickly topic for the Nordic nation, especially on the heels of a referendum over joining the European Union.
The country’s population of 400,000 narrowly voted on Aug. 29 to reject restarting negotiations to become a member of the E.U. The question of membership came into focus after Trump’s push to annex Greenland, as some Icelandic voters saw the bloc as a potential political and economic bulwark against similar pressure on Iceland. Iceland, a founding member of NATO, does not have its own military. Its security instead rests on the alliance’s collective security framework, as well as a 1951 bilateral agreement under which the U.S. provides for its defense.
Others argued that joining the E.U. would relinquish some sovereignty over Iceland’s affairs, particularly over its lucrative fishing grounds, which would become subject to the E.U.’s common fisheries policy. Iceland is already a member of the European Economic Area and the Schengen zone, which gives it access to the E.U.’s single market and passport-free travel.
Iceland’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir had summoned Long to “convey a clear message that the image was wholly inappropriate.”
Gunnarsdóttir told reporters that “people within the U.S. administration” had advised her to “not take the current U.S. President literally.”
“But we should take him seriously,” she added. “That is exactly what we are doing, and we are stressing that Iceland is a sovereign, independent state that is responsible for its own future.”
Long had previously joked about an American takeover of Iceland. In January, he was overheard telling lawmakers on the House floor that Iceland could become the 52nd state with him as the governor. At the time, Iceland’s foreign ministry said it was investigating the matter.
Long later apologized, telling news site Arctic Today that “there was nothing serious about that, I was with some people, who I hadn’t met for three years, and they were kidding about [U.S. special envoy to Greenland] Jeff Landry being governor of Greenland and they started joking about me and if anyone took offense to it, then I apologize.”
“This is not a joke,” Gunnarsdóttir said, dismissing the possibility of the U.S. President using a similar defense. “And if it is supposed to be a joke, it’s a bad one.”
