REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) – In Iceland, a nation so safe that its president runs errands on a bicycle, U.S. Ambassador Jeffery Ross Gunter has left locals aghast with his request to hire armed bodyguards.
Gunter has also enraged lawmakers by casually and groundlessly hitching Iceland to President Donald Trump’s controversial “China virus” label for the novel coronavirus.
Not particularly diplomatic? Well, Gunter is hardly a diplomat by training. He’s a dermatologist. But he is also a contributor to Trump’s campaign, and that landed him the post in Reykjavik.
Gunter’s actions, and those of other politically connected U.S. ambassadors, highlight the risks that come with the peculiarly American institution of handing coveted diplomatic postings to campaign donors and presidential friends who have few other qualifications. The practice has increased under Trump.
“America is an extreme outlier in sending inexperienced and unqualified ambassadors,” said Barbara Stephenson, a former career foreign service officer, ambassador to Panama and ex-president of the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats.