Jeffrey Ross Gunter’s one-and-a-half year tenure as US ambassador to Iceland under Donald Trump has been, by many accounts, a mess.
The wealthy dermatologist and GOP sponsor — who had never been to Iceland before being confirmed for the position — angered staff, lashed out at staff, demanding guns and armaments for the staff. security personnel in the safest country in the world and trying to do remote work in California during the pandemic, according to a CBS news report.
A later report on Gunter by the State Department Inspector General showed that he threatened to sue embassy employees he considered enemies, and alleges that Washington was too concerned about the situation to point marketed to U.S. diplomats in Europe to work directly with Icelandic officials, omitting Gunter. .
Now, Gunter wants to add an even more important job to his resume: US senator.
Gunter has indicated to multiple Republican agents that he plans to challenge Senator Jacky Rosen (D) at the Nevada competitive battlefield next year, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
It’s unclear exactly when Gunter might launch a campaign, but there’s been one world where Gunter turned his disastrous tenure in Reykjavik into a resounding success: a website he created to list list “win” as ambassador.
All 122 of them, to be exact.
The first achievement was legitimate: Gunter oversaw the completion of the new US embassy in Reykjavik during his tenure. But since then, he’s often measured his diplomatic success more in retweets from Donald Trump and social media views than in anything else.
On its website, Gunter’s sixth-ranked achievement was posting a “congratulation tweet on President Trump’s historic brokerage of the Abraham Accords,” which drew “unprecedented engagement.” ” and “regarded as Ambassador Gunter and Embassy Reykjavik’s most reacted tweet.”
“It was reposted,” the website notes, “by the President of the United States.”
Gunter’s fifth achievement was a Facebook video he recorded on July 4 that was said to “deliver a simple yet powerful message about patriotism, democratic values, shared and deep connection between the United States and Iceland. Reaching over 171,000 people, this video’s viewership exceeds any other social media post in the history of the US Embassy Reykjavik.”
At number 80 on the list is Gunter, who created “three videos on Facebook to inspire people during the COVID-19 pandemic,” forging solidarity between the people of the United States and Iceland, and inspiring inspiration for many in these difficult times.”
Notably, the report on Gunter’s ambassadorial tenure revealed his obsession with social media, which was so severe that he would spend hours with embassy staff creating a line single tweet.
Gunter also claims to have performed the most basic duties of an overseas diplomat, such as handling passport requests, hosting US officials, and liaising with his counterparts. Iceland. A simple achievement is welcoming the Icelandic foreign minister to the embassy. Notably, US citizens in Iceland and some Icelanders were furious at Gunter’s performance, with some call him to be recovered.
Another Gunter achievement: the beginning of “the ‘light lunch’ tradition”.
“Originally launched during the long, dark winter, these lunches (and sometimes breakfasts) continue throughout the summer, as the COVID pandemic threatens both our community and our sense of community. everyone,” the site reads. “Taking care of the team is the key to leadership.”
That line might ring for Gunter’s old team. During his tenure, the ambassador fired seven deputy heads — the top diplomat in the embassy was not an ambassador — fired one simply because he didn’t “like the way he looked,” according to the statement. CBS News. He also scolded an employee for leaving snow boots under their desk during the Icelandic winter.
The list of accomplishments the former ambassador recognized himself—and the failures he clearly overlooked in it—is a good summary of why Gunter isn’t exactly the top contender for the campaign. Republican Party.
Gunter did not respond to a request for comment through its website.
In Nevada, the Republican Party will need a strong challenger to Rosen in 2024. Last year’s race between Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D) and Adam Laxalt (R) was the closest Senate run in the year. cycle, decided by only 8,000 votes. National Republicans were anxious to win back a seat in Nevada, and a victory there could easily topple the Senate majority in their way.
According to Independent NevadaThe brass GOP recruited Sam Brown, a retired U.S. Army Captain and Purple Heart recipient who was unsuccessful in the party’s run in the 2022 Senate race.
The declared front-runner in the race, Jim Marchant, also worried many Republicans. A former far-right state legislator who lost last year’s Nevada Secretary of State election, Marchant has loudly denied the results of the 2020 election and is closely connected with the main figures. key in the QAnon conspiracy movement.
In a crowded mainstream, however, Gunter’s ability to fund his campaign through his own fortune could make him a formidable contender. A dermatologist by training, he founded a nationwide chain of skin clinics, with locations in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. He has been a prolific donor to Republican campaigns and causes, giving them hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.
That giving may be what has earned Gunter a coveted ambassadorship in the world’s northernmost capital. He donated $100,000 to a super PAC supporting Trump’s 2016 campaign and another $100,000 for Trump’s inauguration. While it is normal for presidents to award certain ambassadorial positions to donors, Trump has nominated one unusually high amount of political, non-diplomatic appointees to ambassadorial posts, especially those who lavishly contributed to his inaugural committee.
But Gunter’s ability to run for the Senate could be stumbling as his relationship with the GOP isn’t entirely rock-solid — and ties with his adoptive home state appear fragile.
First, he appears to have been registered to vote in two different states and with two different parties. In 2021, Gunter registered as a Republican in Nevada, according to voting records reviewed by The Daily Beast. But since 2000, he has registered to vote as a Democrat in California, which has long been his hometown.
Gunter attended high school and college in Berkeley, studied medicine in Los Angeles, and built his dermatology business in Lancaster City, just outside Los Angeles. He has owned property in Nevada since 2007 and owns a home in the town of Pahrump, an hour west of Las Vegas on the border with California.
Gunter’s website states that he resides in Nevada. But in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, Gunter would rather work in California than return to Iceland, CBS News reportedand would not do so unless then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered him to. (Pompeo eventually did.)
While the majority of Nevada residents are from elsewhere, Marchant has lived in the state since 2005 and Brown has lived there since 2018, although he unsuccessfully ran for office in the Texas legislature in 2014.
According to voter records, Gunter last voted in 2018, in California. There is no record of him voting in the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost.
In 2022, an election year in which Nevada may have tipped the Republican majority in the Senate, Gunter requested an absentee ballot—from California—but apparently didn’t return it.
While Gunter has given more than $10,000 to committees supporting Laxalt, the 2022 Senate candidate, and $5,000 to the state GOP, he doesn’t appear to have voted in the election that Laxalt ultimately did. lost with less than 8,000 votes.
Ironically, Gunter’s 94th achievement as an ambassador represents his efforts to help US citizens in Iceland exercise their right to vote.
Gunter, his list of achievements reads, “helped Americans register to vote and vote in the 2020 US election.”
“Helping Americans in Iceland is a core part of the Embassy’s work and helping them participate in these important elections is an honor and a pleasure,” it said.
