Trump is out to conquer the entire North Atlantic

[Scooter]

Anger in Iceland over incoming US ambassador’s ‘52nd state’ joke

Thousands of people have signed a petition expressing anger after Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Iceland reportedly joked that the Nordic country should become the 52nd US state.

On Wednesday, hours before top officials from Greenland and Denmark were to meet with the US in the hope of warding off Trump’s threats to seize the Arctic island, the news outlet Politico said it had heard of musings regarding another Nordic island.

“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 reaction in Reykjavík was swift. In a statement to the Guardian, Iceland’s foreign ministry said it had contacted the US embassy for clarification. “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, Þorgerður 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.

Within hours of its launch, more than 3,200 people had signed the petition, backing the call for the US to “nominate another person who shows greater respect for Iceland and the Icelandic people”.

On Wednesday Long reportedly apologised for the remarks in an interview with Arctic Today, a news website that covers the region. The outlet quoted him as saying the comments had been made in jest as others were joking about Jeff Landry, Trump’s US special envoy to Greenland.

“There was nothing serious about that, I was with some people, who I hadn’t met for three years, and they were kidding about Jeff Landry being governor of Greenland and they started joking about me and if anyone took offence to it, then I apologise,” the publication quoted Long as saying.

Though Long said he could understand why the comments would have set off a reaction, he was adamant they were a joke and should not be taken seriously.

“I apologise and that’s my only comment, I look forward to working with the people of Iceland and I apologise it was taken that way. I was with a group of friends and there was nothing serious about it,” he added.

On Thursday, Sigmar Guðmundsson, an MP for Iceland whose centrist Liberal Reform party is part of the country’s governing coalition, described the remarks as “not a particularly funny joke” given the tensions over Greenland.

“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.”

He described the comments as a sign of the growing disrespect in the US towards the sovereignty of small states. “Icelanders also have to have the courage, despite our very friendly relations with the United States, not least through Nato, to discuss where and how our security interests are best served in this changing world.”

[Sue U]

It's turtles dicks all the way down.

[Burning Petard]

Well, let's just think about this. Canada, Greenland, Iceland three more states in these United States. Wouldn't that be six more anti-MAGA senators?
I can't calculate how many that would be in the lower house of congress.

snailgate

[Burning Petard]

Now I am slightly puzzled. Only slightly because this is testing my ability to accept that the Leader of the Free World, and the legally elected President of the USofA is really that (stupid? evil? crazy?) I have seen on my computer screen, selected by some algo, not me, that Trump has informed the King of Norway that he is ready to go to war over Greenland because he did not get the Noble Peace Prize.

It that fake news, or real? Lazy and ignorant computer user wants to know.

snailgate.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Real. He really is that moronic; and it is just today's example of 'every time you think he must have reached the bottom of the barrel, he shows you again just how limited your imagination is.'

Full text of his note to the Norwegian PM, Jonas Gahr Støre:

Dear Jonas:
Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT.

And when I first saw this, I thought it was rather good satire. Whoever wrote it had perfectly imitated his communications style, including the incontinent use of upper case letters. It took the NYT, as usual, to make me realize that this was real.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/worl ... nobel.html

[MajGenl.Meade]

I was particularly fond of "we do not want Russia as our neighbor"

[BoSoxGal]

‘I can see Russia from my backyard.’ - former Wasilla Alaska mayor