Icelandic Prime Minister Kristórn Hróstadóttir will participate in a hearing session regarding the referendum scheduled for August 26, 2026 in Reykjavík, Iceland.
Jonathan Knackstrand | AFP | Getty Images
Iceland has harshly criticized US President Donald Trump for posting a map on social media that appears to show the island and several other countries covered in American flags.
On Monday, President Trump posted an image on Truth Social depicting the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean under the Stars and Stripes.
The map was published without comment, following a flurry of posts suggesting that the U.S. state of New Mexico should be renamed “New America.”
Iceland summoned US Ambassador Billy Long over the incident, and Foreign Minister Torgeldur Gunnarsdóttir said the meeting was necessary to “make clear that from our perspective this is completely unacceptable.”
Gunnarsdóttir told a news conference that the Nordic nation of about 400,000 people supports Greenland over President Trump’s annexation threat and has no intention of softening its position on the issue.
“It’s clear that this is a basic principle. In my opinion, this is not a joke, and if it was meant to be a joke, it’s a very bad one,” Gunnarsdóttir said, according to Icelandic state broadcaster RÚV.
A White House press secretary was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday morning.
U.S. presidents have long insisted on control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, on national security grounds. Notably, President Trump repeatedly appeared to confuse Greenland and Iceland in a special speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year.
Most recently, Iceland voted to refuse to resume negotiations to join the EU, as domestic issues such as fishing regulations appeared to take precedence over geopolitical security concerns.
Government officials in Denmark and Mexico also made exceptions for Trump’s post.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen reportedly called the post “disgusting and in many ways completely inappropriate.”
“This clearly shows that the president of the United States still has some kind of extremist vision in his mind, which we need to rein in,” Rasmussen added in comments to state broadcaster DR.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that her country “is not and will never be a foreign colony or protectorate.” He added: “We are proud to be a free, independent and sovereign nation.”
