{"id":751,"date":"2026-05-18T23:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=751"},"modified":"2026-05-18T23:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:36:12","slug":"senate-confirms-ambassador-to-iceland-who-joked-about-making-it-a-u-s-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=751","title":{"rendered":"Senate confirms ambassador to Iceland who joked about making it a U.S. state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former congressman Billy Long\u2019s nomination was included in a batch of nearly 50 Trump administration nominees cleared Monday by the Senate. <\/strong><\/p>

Read more Texas Tech\u2019s Sorsby, after acknowledging gambling, asks court for injunction to restore eligibility<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Former congressman Billy Long (R-Missouri) appears on Capitol Hill in May 2025. (Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The Senate voted Monday to confirm a new ambassador to Iceland whose joke about making the country a U.S. state infuriated Icelanders.<\/p>\n

Billy Long, a former Republican congressman from Missouri, apologized during his confirmation hearing in February for joking about making Iceland the \u201c52nd state.\u201d President Donald Trump has talked repeatedly about his desire to admit Canada as the 51st state.<\/p>\n

Icelanders responded by starting a petition<\/a> asking Iceland\u2019s minister of foreign affairs to reject Long and urging Trump to nominate someone else. The petition attracted more than 5,500 signatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would urge you to understand that when you are being considered as an ambassador of the United States that those kinds of jokes aren\u2019t necessarily viewed by others as funny,\u201d Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during Long\u2019s confirmation hearing. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re hearing in Iceland \u2014 that here\u2019s some real concern about what your views are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long responded that his comments \u2014 which were first reported by Politico \u2014 were \u201ctotally inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope that the people in Iceland will give me a second chance to make a first impression,\u201d he said.<\/p>

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The Senate voted <\/b>46-43 along party lines to confirm Long and 48 other lower-level presidential nominees, including ambassadors, U.S. attorneys and assistant secretaries of state, transportation, defense and commerce.<\/p>\n

The package of Trump\u2019s nominees is the fourth the Senate has confirmed since Republicans changed the chamber\u2019s rules last year<\/a> to allow the confirmation of multiple lower-level nominees at a time.<\/p>\n

Democrats decried the change, which Republicans said was necessary to combat a backlog of nearly 150 nominees whom Democrats refused to confirm by voice vote, which is faster.<\/p>\n

The vote was not the first time the Senate has confirmed Long, a genial former auctioneer, during Trump\u2019s second term. The chamber vote in June to confirmed Long as Internal Revenue Service commissioner, but Trump forced Long out<\/a> less than two months later after he made changes that frustrated Treasury Department leaders.<\/p>\n

Long said during his confirmation hearing that he would give the job everything he had.<\/p>

Read more Neymar picked for Brazil\u2019s World Cup squad despite doubts on fitness<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to Iceland I plan to put in 100 percent,\u201d he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former congressman Billy Long’s nomination was included in a batch of nearly 50 Trump administration nominees cleared by the Senate on Monday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate confirms ambassador to Iceland who joked about making it a U.S. state - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=751\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate confirms ambassador to Iceland who joked about making it a U.S. state - 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