The Iceland government is red-hot after President Trump posted an AI-generated image depicting the island country — as well as all of North America, Central America and the Caribbean — under Washington’s rule.
“There is nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states,” Iceland’s Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Gunnarsdottir told reporters Tuesday. “If this is supposed to be a joke, then it is a bad joke.”
Gunnarsdottir further blasted the Monday morning post — which labeled the US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Mexico as part of the “United States of America” — as insulting and “absurd.”
Iceland’s public broadcaster RUV reported that Gunnarsdottir had summoned recently confirmed US Ambassador Billy Long, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs telling the outlet that “it was made clear at the meeting that the post was entirely inappropriate.”
Long himself, a former Missouri congressman, once joked that he could be governor if Iceland became a state — only to apologize for that comment earlier this year following backlash in the island country.
Trump posted the altered map without explanation or any indication it was done in jest, though the president has a history of sharing such content to troll his critics. He has also repeatedly suggested annexing Canada and Greenland — with the White House refusing to rule out military force in the latter case, unnvering European nations.
Until Monday, Trump had never intentionally floated the possibility of acquiring Iceland, though he appeared to mix up Iceland and Greenland, the latter of which is owned by Denmark, in remarks earlier this year,
The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also issued a blast toward Washington in response to the president’s post.
“The Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people have said again and again that they do not want to be American,” Frederiksen told Danish news outlet Ritzau.
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“I hope no one is in any doubt about that, either in the United States or the rest of the world.”
The Truth Social post also rankled Canada, which is in the middle of an escalating trade war with the US after tariff talks broke down last month.
“Let me be clear,” Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre said during a Monday press conference, “all Canadians stand united in denouncing the President’s unacceptable tweets, trolling and tariffs.”
