I am Calling on Iceland to Expel US Ambassador Jeffrey Ross Gunter

By Grace Claiborn Barbörudóttir,

American citizen living in Iceland.

When Jeffrey Ross Gunter, the American ambassador to Iceland, tweeted, “We are United to defeat the Invisible China Virus,” he exposed himself, personally, as a racist representative of an openly racist administration. But, like the Trump administration, he is also failing to meet the needs of the citizens he is supposed to serve, causing disruption to our lives and humiliating us on the international stage.

At the beginning of the epidemic, in March, the embassy sent a paltry alert to American citizens living in Iceland to warn them that if they wanted to return to America, they should do so soon, and make arrangements without federal aid.

The embassy closed its doors to consular services and has failed to resume them, despite the epidemic being contained in Iceland. The embassy’s official website displays anti-Chinese propaganda but is impossible to request an appointment, as the calendar is full of blank, grey squares indicating indefinite closure. Emails are returned with questions about future appointments unanswerered. Many American citizens cannot register births, deaths, get passports, or receive any type of assistance that is the essential function of consular services.

Meanwhile, the ambassador continues to add insult to injury, by sharing a photograph of himself with English actor and Hollywood resident Orlando Bloom on a visit to Iceland, while many Americans are prohibited from travel and separated from their families. This tone-deaf display reinforces the feeling that the ambassador is only interested in the self-serving, glamorous status of being a diplomat while shedding the actual responsibilities.

So why is he here? Who is he really serving? Certainly not the citizens of the United States. He is not a career diplomat, but like many ambassadors, a wealthy donor to the president, and the President of the United States seems to be the only citizen he is serving besides himself.

Additionally, Ambassador Gunter is a doctor by trade, a fact that makes his referral to Covid-19 as “invisible” all the more bizarre, unprofessional, and even insidious.

The ambassador is a man who echoes the same damaging rhetoric of the Trump administration which has endangered Americans in America by inflaming racial tensions, conflating conspiracies with science, and prolonging an epidemic.

I implore the Icelandic government to take a stand against this hateful, ineffectual ambassador. The American government is failing its citizens at home. Do not allow it to continue to fail its citizens abroad as well. Take a stand on the side of decency, diplomacy and democracy and send him home.