Trump's map sparks controversy, Iceland summons US ambassador: What we know so far

US President Donald Trump's latest map-making exercise has drawn a sharp response from Iceland. Foreign Secretary Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir summoned US Ambassador Billy Long after Trump posted a map on social media depicting the US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean (Cuba and Jamaica) covered in red, white and blue stars and stripes of the US flag.

The image, posted on Monday, showed the American flag covering most of North America. In the image, the entire landmass was labelled "United States of America".

The Truth Social post offered no explanation. Viewers, however, recalled Trump’s earlier remarks of making Canada the 51st state and his repeated musings on taking over Greenland, Denmark’s self-governing territory.

Gunnarsdóttir summoned Long to a meeting and said she had made it clear that the post was unacceptable, RÚV, the national broadcaster, said, according to the Associated Press.

Iceland — just 180 miles (290 km) away — became alarmed when Trump mistakenly named their country four times while speaking about his designs on Greenland.

Iceland is a NATO member, but the gaffe led its left-leaning coalition government to move up a referendum, originally planned for next year, on whether the country should resume long-stalled negotiations to join the EU.

Voters rejected the measure on 30 August, which was promoted, in part, 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 Long as ambassador after he made a crack earlier this year about Iceland becoming the 52nd US state and making him governor. Long apologized and took up his post in Reykjavik last month.

Danish PM reacts

The post also drew criticism from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said on Monday that the position of Greenland's government and people had been made clear.

Trump's interest in Greenland has been a recurring theme on his social media accounts and in speeches since he took office again last year.

"The Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people have said again and again that they do not want to be American," she told Danish news agency Ritzau in Nuuk.

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

Meanwhile, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Trump's post was "disturbing and, in many ways, completely inappropriate." He told the national broadcaster DR on Tuesday, “It’s obviously a sign that the US president still harbours some kind of maximalist vision in his own mind. We need to rein that in.”

The post came amid US tensions with Canada over trade, with Washington and Ottawa slapping tariffs on each other’s goods in the last month.

Amid the trade war, Trump had also signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario, which shares a name with a Canadian province, to “Lake America.”

Earlier, the European Union also sought to reassure Greenland with the promise of a stronger partnership and hundreds of millions of euros in investment following Trump's repeated threats.

Mexican president says 'we are a free…'

Over the Labor Day weekend, the global map was not the only thing on his mind. Trump also suggested renaming the state of New Mexico as “New America.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico "is neither nor will be a colony or protectorate of any foreign country," after Trump's post. "Proudly we are a free, independent, and sovereign nation," she wrote on social media.