Trump's Iceland ambassador pick made a '52nd state' joke. Icelanders aren't laughing

Many Canadians didn't regain it really funny when U.S. Chairwoman Donald ruff repeatedly threatened to make Canada its 51st state.

And Trump's comments about taking control of Greenland, once considered a joke, are now a very real threat.

So when Trump's pick for U.S. Ambassador to Iceland joked this week that the Nordic country should become the 52nd state — and that he should be its governor — it didn't exactly go down well.

"These words ... May have been spoken in a half-hearted manner, but they are offensive to Iceland and Icelanders, who have had to fight for their freedom and have always been friends of the United States," notes a petition circulating calling on Iceland’s foreign minister to reject William Long's nomination as ambassador for the country.

"This is of course not a particularly funny joke in light of the discussion that is currently going on in the West Coast about Greenland, and in fact these are actually quite serious comments," Sigmar Guðmundsson, an Iceland MP, told the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið on Thursday. 

He, too, called on Foreign Minister Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to reject Long as ambassador, adding the U.S. Should "nominate another person who shows Iceland and Icelanders more respect."

Iceland's foreign ministry told Morgunblaðið on Thursday that it had contacted the U.S. Embassy in Iceland "to verify the veracity of the alleged comments."

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Trump officially nominated Long, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Missouri, for the position of Iceland ambassador on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, news website Politico wrote in its morning newsletter that, "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."

Reaction in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavík, was swift. As of Friday, nearly 5,000 people had signed the petition calling for Gunnarsdóttir to reject Long's nomination. Iceland has a population of about 400,000 people.

By Thursday, Long apologized, telling Arctic Today he made the comments in jest in response to a joke about Jeff Landry — the U.S. Special envoy to Greenland — becoming governor of 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 apologize," Long said.

He added that he could understand the reaction, given the tense situation between Greenland and the U.S., but reiterated that his comments were a joke and nothing more.

"I apologize it was taken that way, I was with a group of friends and there was nothing serious about it," Long told the news site.

Guðmundsson, the Iceland MP, told Morgunblaðið that Long's jokes signal a growing disrespect in the U.S. Toward the sovereignty of smaller states.

"It goes without saying that this is extremely serious for a small country like Iceland. We must realize that all the security arguments that the Americans make against Greenland also apply to Iceland," he told the news site.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to seize Greenland, an island nation northwest of Iceland. This week, he called anything less than U.S. Control of Greenland "unacceptable."

Trump has said Greenland, which is part of Denmark, is vital to U.S. Security because of its strategic location and large supply of minerals and has not ruled out the use of force to take it. European nations this week sent small numbers of military personnel to the island at Denmark's request.

Trump said on Friday he may impose tariffs on countries that didn't support his plan, "because we need Greenland for national security."

In a press conference last Sunday about the future of Greenland, days before Long's comments, Iceland's Foreign Minister Katrín Gunnarsdóttir told reporters Iceland's relationship and co-operation with the U.S. Is "excellent."

"Are we frightened about being next on the schedule? No, I wouldn't assume so, not yet at least," she said.

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