Trump’s map sparks controversy, Iceland summons US ambassador: What we know so far | Today’s news
US President Donald Trump’s latest map-making exercise has sparked a reaction from Iceland. Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir summoned US Ambassador Billy Long after Trump posted a map on social media showing the US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean (Cuba and Jamaica) covered in the red, white and blue stars and stripes of the US flag.
The map, released Monday, showed the American flag covering most of North America. In the image, the entire landmass was labeled as “United States of America”.
The Truth Social post offered no explanation, but recalled Trump’s earlier talk about making Canada the 51st state and his repeated musings about taking over Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark.
Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir summoned US Ambassador Billy Long to a meeting and said she had made it clear the post was unacceptable, national television RÚV reported, according to the Associated Press.
Iceland – just 290km away – became alarmed when Trump mistakenly named their country four times when talking about his Greenland proposals.
Iceland is a NATO member, but the spat has led its left-leaning coalition government to push back a referendum originally planned for next year on whether the country should resume long-stalled EU accession talks.
Voters rejected the Aug. 30 measure, touted in part as an effort to strengthen ties with Europe to better insulate the country from geopolitical instability.
Thousands of Icelanders have also signed a petition urging the prime minister to reject Long as ambassador after he bid farewell to Iceland becoming the 52nd US state and become governor earlier this year. Long apologized and took up his post in Reykjavík last month.
The Danish Prime Minister reacts
The post also drew criticism from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said on Monday that the position of the Greenlandic government and people had been clarified.
Trump’s interest in Greenland has been a recurring theme on his social media accounts and in speeches since taking office last year.
“The Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people have said over and over again that they don’t want to be Americans,” she told Danish news agency Ritzau in Nuuk.
“I hope no one doubts that, either in the United States or in the rest of the world.”
Meanwhile, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Trump’s post was “disturbing and in many ways completely inappropriate”. He told national broadcaster DR on Tuesday: “It’s clearly a sign that the US president still harbors some kind of maximalist vision in his own mind. We have to keep it in check.”
The post came amid tensions between the US and Canada over trade, with Washington and Ottawa slapping tariffs on each other’s goods in the past month.
Amid the trade war, Trump also signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario, which shares a name with the Canadian province, as “Lake America.”
Earlier, the European Union also tried to calm Greenland by promising a stronger partnership and investments of hundreds of millions of euros after Trump’s repeated threats.
Mexican President Says ‘We Are Free’
He didn’t just have the global map on his mind over the Labor Day weekend. Trump also proposed renaming the state of New Mexico “New America”.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said after Trump’s post that Mexico “is not and will not be a colony or protectorate of any foreign country.” “We are proud to be a free, independent and sovereign nation,” she wrote on social media.
