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, 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.”