Iceland has summoned the U.S. ambassador after President Donald Trump posted an image on social media showing Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean covered by the American flag and labeled “United States of America.”

Trump posted the map without an explanation. Iceland’s Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir summoned U.S. Ambassador Billy Long, who formally took up the post just last month, to express the government’s objections. The Icelandic Foreign Ministry said it made clear that the post was “entirely inappropriate.”

Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir called the map an insult and a “bad joke.” The reaction comes as Iceland and other North Atlantic countries face heightened uncertainty over Trump’s views on territorial expansion and U.S. relations with longtime allies.

The map was posted against the backdrop of Trump’s repeated statements about Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

Trump has repeatedly argued that the U.S. should acquire Greenland, citing national security and strategic interests. In January 2025, he also said he wanted the U.S. to regain control of the Panama Canal and declined to rule out military or economic pressure to achieve his goals.

Those comments raised concern in Denmark and among other European allies, particularly because Greenland is part of Denmark, a NATO member.

Trump has also repeatedly referred to Iceland when discussing Greenland, at times appearing to confuse the two countries. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has acknowledged that Trump had mixed up Iceland and Greenland.

The latest map, therefore, landed differently in Iceland than a typical political meme might have. It appeared to place a sovereign NATO ally inside the U.S. without any explanation from the president.

The Iceland controversy also follows a series of efforts by Trump to rename geographic features and promote names that emphasize American sovereignty.

Soon after returning to the White House in 2025, Trump ordered the U.S. government to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The order applied to the U.S. government’s geographic naming system, meaning it couldn’t force Mexico or other countries to adopt the new name.

Last month, Trump went further with Lake Ontario. He signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to rename it “Lake America” for U.S. federal purposes amid an escalating trade dispute with Canada. The order doesn’t control what Canada or international organizations call the lake.

Trump has also recently floated changing the name of the U.S. state of New Mexico to “New America.” Unlike the Gulf of Mexico or Lake Ontario, however, the president doesn’t have unilateral authority to rename a state.

Iceland isn’t the only country to push back against Trump’s territorial and geographic rhetoric.

Denmark has repeatedly rejected Trump’s calls for the U.S. to acquire Greenland. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen criticized the latest map as inappropriate, while officials in Greenland have rejected the idea of the territory becoming part of the U.S.

Canada has also rejected Trump’s repeated suggestions that it could become the 51st U.S. state. The relationship is already strained by an escalating trade dispute, including U.S. tariffs and Canadian retaliation.

The map comes as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Greenland and announced an investment of 200 million euros – or about $232 million – underscoring the broader international interest in the territory as Trump continues to press his case for greater U.S. control.

For Iceland, however, the immediate issue is simpler: Its government saw the image as an inappropriate depiction of a sovereign country as part of the U.S. and formally summoned the American ambassador to make that clear.