President Donald Trump’s Truth Social feed set off a diplomatic incident on Monday, September 7, 2026, when Iceland’s government summoned the U.S. ambassador in Reykjavik over an image the president had published showing the island and a string of neighboring countries under the American flag.
A single label — “United States of America” — stretched across the entire landmass in the picture, with the U.S. flag laid over Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean as well as the United States itself. The Gulf of Mexico was marked on it as the “Gulf of America,” and Caribbean islands such as Cuba were folded in; French media noted that the French Caribbean territories of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy also appeared in U.S. colors. The president shared it on his social media platform without saying what it was supposed to mean, and no explanation has surfaced since. He did not call for annexation, and as of September 11 his administration had announced no policy to incorporate the countries shown.
A Summons in Reykjavik
Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Gunnarsdottir summoned Billy Long, Washington’s envoy to Reykjavik, who had formally assumed the role only in August. The message he heard was brief.
“The position was clearly expressed that the post was completely inappropriate,” Iceland’s foreign ministry told RUV.
The foreign minister spoke publicly about the post on September 8. “There is nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states,” Gunnarsdottir told reporters. She also said: “If this is supposed to be a joke, then it is a bad joke.”
Greenland Money and Denmark’s Message
The image landed in a region already on edge over Trump’s insistence in recent years that the United States must take possession of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory. He has also refused to rule out taking the island by force, and the combination has strained ties between Washington and Copenhagen, both NATO founding members, while annoying other European capitals.
Hours before the president posted, the European Commission had unveiled a €200 million investment in Greenland, roughly $232.5 million, as its president, Ursula von der Leyen, visited the territory.
As of September 14, French President Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Carney had made a joint island visit, described as a counter to Trump’s territorial ambitions and an emphasis on sovereignty. It was reported as the first such visit by a Canadian prime minister.
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, tackled the question of Greenland’s future head-on in Nuuk, in remarks to the Danish news agency Ritzau. “The Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people have said again and again that they do not want to be American,” she said. She added that she hoped there was no doubt about that, in the United States or anywhere else in the world.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum answered the map on X, invoking her country’s independence month: “In the month of the homeland we reaffirm that Mexico is not and will not be a colony or protectorate of any foreign country. We are proudly a free, independent and sovereign country.” The image drew protests from Iceland, Denmark, France and other governments.
Iceland’s Referendum and the U.S. Question
Iceland, home to a little more than 400,000 people, had weighed where the country belongs only weeks before the post appeared. In an August referendum held partly against the backdrop of Trump’s ambitions in Greenland, voters turned down a restart of European Union membership talks.
Backers of resuming the negotiations had argued that uncertainty over how far Washington could be counted on was itself a reason to take a closer look. Analysts, though, attributed the result chiefly to anxieties over the domestic economy rather than to any debate about transatlantic security.
Trump has reached for Iceland before, occasionally as a substitute for Greenland. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, he went after NATO for opposing an American takeover of Greenland while repeatedly naming Iceland instead, telling the audience at one point that the allies would not be there for the United States “on Iceland.” In the same appearance he faulted Iceland for a stock market slide and said the country had already cost the United States a great deal of money. A former White House press secretary defended the remarks, explaining that he had been referring to Greenland as a piece of ice.
The day before, he had mixed up the two countries as well, at a White House news conference where he was defending tariff threats designed to push Denmark into selling Greenland. “Iceland, without tariffs, they wouldn’t even be talking to us about it,” Trump said.
Other neighbors on the map have objected to the president’s approach, too. He has suggested Canada could become the 51st U.S. state, and he renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The Iceland image came out of the same weekend posting spree that also produced a picture depicting New Mexico as “New America.”
Long, barely a month into his posting in Reykjavik, is left in the middle of the dispute. The former Republican congressman had already joked that he could become Iceland’s governor if the island were ever made a U.S. state, a remark he later apologized for.
What the image was meant to represent, and who put it on Trump’s account, remain unclear. Trump aide Natalie Harp is partially responsible for crafting his social media presence and gets Trump to approve posts beforehand; she and Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino are named in a lawsuit by The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation over charging $100,000 for early access to his Truth Social posts.
