Candidate for the position of US Ambassador to Iceland Bill Long in an interview with the news portal Arctic today sorry for joking that Iceland could become America's 52nd state.
“It was nothing serious, I was with some people I hadn't seen in three years and they joked that (U.S. Special Envoy to Greenland) Jeff Landry was the governor of Greenland and they started making fun of me, and if anyone felt offended by that, I'm sorry,” Long said.
As Politico reported, citing sources, Long, during a meeting with congressmen, joked that Iceland could become the 52nd state of the United States, and he himself could also become the governor of this state.
On January 15, the former Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, head of the GORKl center at St. Petersburg, Karin Kneissl, in an interview with , expressed the opinion that Greenland could become the 51st state of the United States.
Trump has repeatedly declared the need to annex Greenland into the US. Early in his first term, he proposed buying Greenland, and in March 2025 he expressed confidence that it could be annexed. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller questioned Denmark's control of the island and said it should become part of the United States.
Greenland is part of Denmark as an autonomous territory. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen signed the Greenland Defense Treaty, in addition to their NATO alliance obligations. Accordingly, the United States pledged to defend the island from possible invasion. This is where the US Pituffik space base is located, where the mission of the missile attack warning system and control of the Arctic region is performed.
