President Donald Trump's nominee for ambassador to Iceland apologized on Thursday after joking comments that the administration might annex that country too, when it's done with Greenland.
According to Politico, "Long was recently nominated to be ambassador to the island nation by President Donald Trump, who has said he wanted to make Canada the 51st state and is now seeking to take over another Arctic realm, Greenland." He reportedly joked that Iceland will be the "52nd state" and that he will serve as its governor.
Speaking to an Alaska news service, Long said, “There was nothing serious about that, I was with some people, who I hadn’t met for three years, and they were kidding about [Louisiana Gov.] Jeff Landry being governor of Greenland and they started joking about me and if anyone took offense to it, then I apologize.”
Long, a former auctioneer who represented Missouri in Congress, has had a rocky relationship with the Trump administration, at least behind the scenes.
He was the president's first pick to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, despite having no prior experience in such a role and despite his long history of anti-tax rhetoric.
After just two months of Long leading the IRS, the president fired him, reportedly because he refused a request from the Department of Homeland Security to turn over confidential tax data to help them identify illegal immigrants — though publicly, Trump gave Long the nomination for ambassador to Iceland to make it seem less like a disciplinary action.