--- title: Trump’s Iceland Ambassador Pick Apologizes for '52nd State' Joke description: Billy Long, Trump's nominee for ambassador to Iceland, drew backlash after joking about the country becoming the 52nd state. canonical: https://time.com/7346779/iceland-us-ambassador-nominee-52nd-state-apology/ author: Connor Greene article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-01-15T23:44:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:47:45.271Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump’s Iceland Ambassador Pick Apologizes for '52nd State' Joke og:description: Long, nominated to be ambassador to Iceland, drew backlash for joking about the country becoming the 52nd U.S. state. og:url: https://time.com/7346779/iceland-us-ambassador-nominee-52nd-state-apology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07144d2473fff889/6998ccec25f3ee02ef64550d/GettyImages-2215573359.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: IRS Hearing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump’s Iceland Ambassador Pick Apologizes for '52nd State' Joke twitter:description: Long, nominated to be ambassador to Iceland, drew backlash for joking about the country becoming the 52nd U.S. state. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07144d2473fff889/6998ccec25f3ee02ef64550d/GettyImages-2215573359.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump’s Iceland Ambassador Nominee Apologizes for Joking About Country Becoming ‘52nd State' After Backlash > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow Jan 15, 2026 11:44 PM UTC  Former Rep. Billy Long, then-nominee to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on May 20, 2025. Former Rep. Billy Long, then-nominee to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on May 20, 2025. Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow Jan 15, 2026 11:44 PM UTC President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Iceland has apologized after a joke he made about the country becoming the U.S.’s 52nd state drew backlash amid rising tensions over Trump’s [threats to annex Greenland](https://time.com/7344877/trump-greenland-annexation-threats-purchase-national-security-economic/). “There was nothing serious about that,” Billy Long, a former Missouri Republican congressman who briefly served as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service under Trump last year, told [Arctic Today](https://www.arctictoday.com/trumps-iceland-ambassador-pick-apologizes-for-52nd-state-comment/). “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 offense to it, then I apologize.” Landry is the U.S. envoy to Greenland. Long faced criticism and calls for his nomination to be rejected from Icelanders after [Politico](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/inside-congress/2026/01/14/more-floor-meltdowns-threaten-funding-bills-00727023) reported that he had joked Iceland would become the 52nd state and he would be made governor while speaking with lawmakers on the House floor Tuesday night. A [petition](https://island.is/undirskriftalistar/915fdb39-dad8-4b98-86a1-da6db479775c) calling on Iceland Foreign Minister Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to reject Long’s nomination currently has nearly 4,000 signatures. “These words of Billy Long, who Donald Trump has nominated as ambassador to Iceland, may have been said in half-hearted terms, but they are insulting to Iceland and Icelanders, who have had to fight for their freedom and have always been a friend of the United States,” the petition reads. It goes on to urge Gunnarsdóttir to “reject Billy Long as ambassador to Iceland and call for the United States to nominate another man, who will show Iceland and Icelanders more respect.” Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself asked the U.S. for clarification on Long's reported remarks prior to the nominee's apology, telling [Politico](https://www.politico.eu/article/iceland-us-ambassador-billy-long-donald-trump-52nd-state/) in a statement that “the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has contacted the U.S. Embassy in Iceland to verify the veracity of the alleged comments.” Looming over Long’s joke and the outcry it prompted are Trump’s repeated threats to take over Greenland, an autonomous island territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, and his Administration’s suggestions that the use of force could be on the table in the President’s push to acquire the island. Greenland, Denmark, and several other European countries have pushed back strongly against the annexation threats. A coalition of top European leaders signed a joint [statement](https://stm.dk/statsministeriet/publikationer/faellesudtalelse-om-groenland/) declaring Greenland’s sovereignty, while Denmark is [increasing its military presence](https://time.com/7346397/denmark-greenland-military-presence-nato-trump/) in the territory and European countries including France and Germany have sent small contingents of [troops](https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/european-military-heads-greenland-trumps-ambitions-island-undeterred-by-talks-2026-01-15/) to the island in a show of support. The Danish Prime Minister has said that U.S. intervention in Greenland would be the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which both Denmark and the U.S. are founding members. “We are now facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark,” Greenland’s prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen [said](https://time.com/7345949/greenland-denmark-trump/) in a news conference on Tuesday. While a number of members of Trump’s own party in the U.S. have also been [publicly critical](https://time.com/7344316/republicans-break-ranks-with-trump-over-greenland-annexation-threat/) of the push to acquire the territory, Republican Rep. Randy Fine of Florida introduced a [bill](https://fine.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=118) to make Greenland the 51st U.S. state earlier this week. Trump also previously expressed a desire to [annex Canada](https://time.com/7297490/trump-plan-to-annex-canada-51st-state-mark-carney/) and make it the 51st state. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7346779/iceland-us-ambassador-nominee-52nd-state-apology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7346779/iceland-us-ambassador-nominee-52nd-state-apology/"},"headline":"Trump’s Iceland Ambassador Nominee Apologizes for Joking About Country Becoming ‘52nd State' After Backlash","datePublished":"2026-01-15T23:44:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:47:45.271Z","description":"Billy Long, Trump's nominee for ambassador to Iceland, drew backlash after joking about the country becoming the 52nd state.","url":"https://time.com/7346779/iceland-us-ambassador-nominee-52nd-state-apology/","keywords":["Trump Administration","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07144d2473fff889/6998ccec25f3ee02ef64550d/GettyImages-2215573359.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Connor Greene","jobTitle":"Editorial Fellow","url":"https://time.com/author/connor-greene/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07144d2473fff889/6998ccec25f3ee02ef64550d/GettyImages-2215573359.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"IRS Hearing","caption":"IRS Hearing","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/trump-administration/","name":"Trump Administration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7346779/iceland-us-ambassador-nominee-52nd-state-apology/","name":"Trump’s Iceland Ambassador Nominee Apologizes for Joking About Country Becoming ‘52nd State' After Backlash"}}]}] ```