Donald Trump Posts Map Absorbing North America, Iceland, and Greenland, Drawing Foreign Backlash

Uncaptioned map on Truth Social

On Monday, 7 September 2026, US President Donald Trump published an image without caption or comment on his platform Truth Social. The graphic presented an expanded map labeled "United States of America" with the US flag draped over the entire North American continent and adjacent regions. The depicted territory absorbed Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Across the Caribbean, the map covered Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the French overseas territories of the French Antilles and Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon. Further north in the Atlantic, both Greenland and Iceland appeared under the American flag. The image also reflected a January 2025 decree in which Trump unilaterally redesignated the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

Diplomatic backlash in Iceland and France

The publication generated an immediate response in Reykjavik. On Tuesday, 8 September 2026, the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir had summoned the US ambassador to register an official protest over the image. A ministry spokesperson stated that the minister made clear to the ambassador that depicting the island nation as US territory was completely inappropriate. The diplomatic move follows a referendum last month in which 52% of Icelandic voters rejected resuming accession negotiations with the European Union. In France, La France insoumise presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized the silence from French authorities regarding overseas territories shown on the map.

Trump publishes a map of the United States that absorbs the French Caribbean islands. There is also Mexico, whose president has already protested. And in France? Is anyone in political or media authority protesting?

Mexico rejects foreign territorial claims

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a public response on X on Monday, rejecting any foreign claims over Mexican territory. She emphasized national sovereignty and independence during Mexico's patriotic holiday month.

In this month of our homeland, we reaffirm that Mexico is not and will not be a colony or a protectorate of any foreign country. We are proudly a free, independent, and sovereign country.

The response occurs during ongoing friction between Washington and Mexico City. The US Department of Justice has pursued the extradition of Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha, currently on leave, along with nine former members of his close circle. Sheinbaum has demanded concrete evidence before proceeding with any extraditions, accusing specific factions in the United States of attempting to influence domestic Mexican decisions and upcoming electoral contests.

Sequence of unilateral geographical renamings

The map follows a series of unilateral naming proposals and executive actions by the US president. In January 2025, at the beginning of his term, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. More recently, he signed an executive decree renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America during trade tensions with Canada, and floated renaming the Strait of Hormuz to the Trump Strait. On Sunday, 6 September 2026, Trump proposed changing the name of the US state of New Mexico to New America.

Political commentators and domestic opponents cited across international reports described these naming initiatives as efforts to shift public attention away from low approval ratings ahead of the November congressional elections. Inquiries regarding the map directed by Reuters to the US State Department, the US embassies in Copenhagen and Reykjavik, and the consulate in Nuuk received no immediate response.