Given former Rep. Billy Long’s record, it was never altogether clear why the White House chose him to lead the Internal Revenue Service. The Missouri Republican was outrageously unqualified, he was plagued by serious controversies, and he was on record trying to eliminate the agency he was nominated to oversee.
Donald Trump pushed GOP senators to confirm Long anyway, and they did as they were told. His tenure, however, was short-lived: Long led the IRS for just 53 days before the president removed him and nominated him instead to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland.
How’s that working out? It could be better. Politico reported:
First Greenland, next Iceland? Reykjavík is concerned about America’s growing territorial ambitions, after POLITICO reported that President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Iceland Billy Long joked in Washington that Iceland will be the 52nd U.S. state and he’ll be governor.
“The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has contacted the U.S. Embassy in Iceland to verify the veracity of the alleged comments,” Iceland’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Evidently, Long recently ran into Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who’s also serving as Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, at which point the former congressman joked about making Iceland the nation’s 52nd state. (Canada, evidently, was envisioned as the 51st state.)
The attempt at humor was not well received. Politico’s report noted that Icelanders launched a petition urging Foreign Minister Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to reject him as ambassador.
“These words of Billy Long, who Donald Trump has nominated as ambassador to Iceland, may have been said in half-hearted terms, but they are insulting to Iceland and Icelanders, who have had to fight for their freedom and have always been a friend of the United States,” the petition says. Long backpedaled soon after, telling Arctic Today, “[I]f anyone took offense to it, then I apologize.” Whether this affects Long’s confirmation remains to be seen (he’s still awaiting a vote in the Senate), but it’s worth appreciating the context: Icelanders might have been inclined to shrug this off if the increasingly imperialistic Trump administration hadn’t already launched an effort to acquire Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip. Given this context, it’s tough to blame Iceland for expressing discomfort with Long’s undiplomatic “joke.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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