Iceland condemns Trump map showing Arctic and Caribbean nations as US territories

Kristrún Frostadóttir has condemned Donald Trump for an online post that appeared to claim the Arctic island as American territory. ( Reuters: Kuba Stezycki )

Iceland has become the latest nation embroiled in a diplomatic row with the United States, after Donald Trump shared a map online that showed the Nordic nation as part of American territory.

The Arctic island's foreign minister this week summoned the newly appointed US ambassador to explain the image, and its prime minister labelled it as "an insult to Icelanders".

The altercation follows a series of other heated clashes between the leaders of countries Mr Trump has suggested the US should seize or annex in a bid to demonstrate growing American influence.

One of the last encounters between the two leaders occurred at a NATO summit held in the Netherlands in 2025. ( Reuters: Toby Melville )

In a post on his Truth Social media platform, Mr Trump shared a graphic that showed the US and other countries in its region emblazoned with the star and stripes of the American flag.

An image shared online by Donald Trump shows Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Iceland and parts of the Caribbean as US territories emblazoned with the country's flag. ( Supplied: Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump )

Among those other nations were the US's immediate neighbours, Mexico and Canada, as well as Greenland, Iceland, Cuba, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands and other parts of the Antilles archipelago.

The image was posted without a caption or explanation.

The post followed months of Mr Trump voicing plans to seize more territory in the western hemisphere, in a move his administration has attributed to the bolstering of American national security.

Mr Trump has repeatedly spoken of plans to make Canada the "51st state" of the US, and angered authorities in Greenland by suggesting he could launch a takeover of the country.

He has signed executive orders renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and changing Lake Ontario to Lake America , and in March suggested he could "take" Cuba .

Executive orders in the US are only set out as presidential directives to shape or rewrite American government policy or national laws, and are therefore not legally binding abroad.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has remained tight-lipped about Mr Trump's territorial decisions and comments , but has said : "The future of Greenland is a matter for Denmark and the people of Greenland."

The latest Truth Social post also came hours after the European Commission announced a 200 million euro ($321.9 million) investment in Greenland during a visit by commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

A day after Mr Trump's post, Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir called in the country's US ambassador, Billy Long, who only formally took up the post last month, according to the Icelandic national broadcaster RUV.

"The position was clearly expressed that the post was completely inappropriate," the Icelandic foreign ministry told RUV .

The foreign minister then later told the outlet the move aimed to show the Trump administration that "Iceland is a sovereign, independent state that is responsible for its own destiny".

Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir summoned the US ambassador to Iceland over the image. ( Reuters: Caitlin Ochs )

Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir also condemned the image.

"There's nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states, especially today when it's not a given," she said at a press conference.

Mr Long did not comment publicly about Mr Trump's post, RUV reported.

The image also attracted the condemnation of Danish leaders, who have repeatedly criticised Mr Trump over his commentary about Greenland, an autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark.

Billy Long has not yet publicly commented on Donald Trump's post. ( Reuters: Greg Nash )

"This is of course alarming and in many ways inappropriate. These are, of course, signs that the US president still has some grandiose ideas in his head," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lökke told RUV.

The US State Department, the US embassies in Copenhagen and Reykjavik, and the US consulate in Nuuk have not publicly commented on the post.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, speaking to Danish news agency Ritzau in Nuuk, said the message from Greenland's government and people had been consistent.

The Arctic nation of Greenland has also been in Donald Trump's sights, with the president voicing plans to attempt a takeover of the island. ( AP: Evgeniy Maloletka )

"The Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people have said again and again that they do not want to be American," she said.

"I hope no-one is in any doubt about that, either in the United States or the rest of the world."

In Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum also took aim at the post and reiterated the country's independence.

"We reaffirm that Mexico is not nor will be a colony or protectorate of any foreign country," she said in a post on X.

"We are proudly a free, independent and sovereign country."

Iceland, which is located 290 kilometres away from the US, first became alarmed when Mr Trump mistakenly named the country four times while speaking about his designs on Greenland.

The country relies on the US for its security because the island has not had a military since gaining independence in 1944. It also has a 1951 bilateral defence agreement with the US.

But the gaffe led its left-leaning coalition government to bring forward the date of a referendum, originally planned for next year, on whether the country should resume long-stalled negotiations to become a member of the European Union.

Voters last month rejected the measure, which was partly promoted as an effort to strengthen ties with Europe to better insulate the country from geopolitical instability.

Thousands of Icelanders also signed a petition urging the prime minister to reject Mr Long — a former US congressman for Missouri — as ambassador after he suggested earlier this year that Iceland could become the 52nd US state, with him elected as governor.

Mr Long later apologised for the comments.