Mike Pence is facing an 'unprecedented' snub in his upcoming Iceland visit

Vice President Mike Pence won't be able to meet with Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir when he visits the island nation next month, according to a new report from the Associated Press. Jakobsdottir won't even be in the country for the visit — she's going to Sweden for a trade union conference.

She's delivering a keynote speech at the event on Sept. 3, and Pence will arrive in Iceland the following day. According to the AP, she won't be making the trip back to meet with the vice president.

Historian Thor Whitehead told The Associated Press that the turn of events was "unprecedented."

"I doubt any other Western leader would decide to address a friendly conference abroad instead of welcoming a major foreign ally," he said.

But Jakobsdottir denied that her intention was an intentional insult to the United States or the Trump administration. The AP reported:

"This visit, that was organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has been bouncing a lot around the calendar so that it has been very difficult to organize oneself around it," she told Icelandic broadcaster RUV on Tuesday. Her office Wednesday confirmed that she had not changed her mind.

She also underscored that the arrangement was "absolutely not" about snubbing the Trump administration and that she had earlier this year met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The decision was made before President Donald Trump announced that he would cancel a visit to another Nordic nation, Denmark.

Nevertheless, whether intentional or not, it was still an embarrassing snub for Pence. Obviously, Jakobsdottir could have changed her plans if she thought the visit was important enough.

But no one should be too surprised. President Donald Trump is grotesquely unpopular overseas, which naturally leads to his foreign leaders deprioritizing shows of respect toward his administration. As Pew Research reported last October:

America’s global image plummeted following the election of President Donald Trump, amid widespread opposition to his administration’s policies and a widely shared lack of confidence in his leadership. Now, as the second anniversary of Trump’s election approaches, a new 25-nation Pew Research Center survey finds that Trump’s international image remains poor, while ratings for the United States are much lower than during Barack Obama’s presidency.