Overview
- Iceland’s Foreign Ministry says it contacted the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík to verify Billy Long’s reported comment that Iceland would become the 52nd state and he would be its governor.
- A public petition urging Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to reject Long has grown to nearly 3,000 signatures within two days, according to local reporting.
- Long told Arctic Today he was joking in reference to comments about Jeff Landry and apologized to anyone offended, adding there was nothing serious about the remark.
- Long’s nomination was formally submitted to the U.S. Senate this week and remains unconfirmed after his short stint as IRS commissioner last year.
- The flap unfolds against wider Arctic tensions over U.S. designs on Greenland, with Global News noting a Republican bill proposing authority to acquire the territory and high-level U.S., Danish, and Greenlandic talks in Washington.