Trump sets new territorial target? Nominee for ambassador of Iceland calls self 'governor of 52nd state

As US President Donald Trump is pulling all the strings to acquire Greenland, his nominee for Iceland has described himself as the “governor of the 52nd state”, referring to the European country.

Former Rep. Billy Long on Tuesday night cracked a joke on the House floor, according to a report by Politico, prompting members to raise eyebrows over Trump’s next annexation plans.

Earlier this year, former Republican Congressman Billy Long of Missouri was nominated by Donald Trump to serve as the US Ambassador to Iceland. While that nomination still awaits Senate confirmation, Long recently held a high-level interim role, serving a brief one-month stint as the acting commissioner of the IRS during the summer of 2024.

Meanwhile, Trump has reiterated his desire to take over Greenland, despite a just okay meeting between his officials and Danish and Greenlandic counterparts.

Trump said on Wednesday that the US needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island, even as he said that “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.

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“Greenland is very important for the national security, including of Denmark,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And the problem is there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland, but there’s everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela,” he said.

What happened in the meeting?

After an hour-long meeting with the US officials, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that there is still a “fundamental disagreement” over the Greenland issue as US President Donald Trump remains stern on his ambition to take over the autonomous Danish territory. The Danish foreign minister said the meeting with Vice-President  JD Vance and Secretary of State  Marco Rubio on Wednesday had been “frank but constructive”.

However, he maintained that Trump was insisting on “conquering” Greenland, which was “totally unacceptable”. “We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of [Denmark],” he said. Soon after the meeting, Trump reiterated that Greenland is “crucial” for American national security, questioning Denmark’s capability to defend the Arctic territory.

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While the hour-long meeting between the US, Denmark and Greenland officials failed to bring a major breakthrough, all sides agreed to set up a high-level working group to discuss the future of the overseas Danish territory. While speaking to reporters outside the White House, Rasmussen said there were “red lines” the US could not cross, and the working group would meet in the coming weeks to find a compromise.