Trump removes IRS commissioner Billy Long, appoints him Iceland ambassador

President Trump on Friday removed former Rep. Billy Long as IRS commissioner just two months after his Senate confirmation, and then appointed him as ambassador to Iceland, a White House official confirmed.

Mr. Trump made the decision to appoint Mr. Long as ambassador after removing him from the tax-collection agency. No reason was given as to why Mr. Long was removed.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to serve as acting IRS commissioner.

“It is an honor to serve my friend President Trump and I am excited to take on my new role as the ambassador to Iceland,” Mr. Long said in a statement. “I am thrilled to answer his call to service and deeply committed to advancing his bold agenda. Exciting times ahead!”

The Senate confirmed Mr. Long, who represented Missouri from 2011 to 2023, on a 53-44 vote despite Democrats’ objections and concerns that he had a slim background on taxes and about his past work for a firm that pitched a fraud-ridden coronavirus pandemic-era tax break.

Mr. Bessent was supportive of Mr. Long and had urged the Senate to confirm him, which it did in June along party lines.

The IRS has been facing major turbulence this year. 

Before Mr. Long’s confirmation, four acting commissioners quit since Mr. Trump was inaugurated in January, including one who resigned over a deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share illegal immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Another was Gary Shapley, a whistleblower who called out the “slow walking” of the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and who was replaced after Mr. Bessent objected to Mr. Trump that Elon Musk had installed the IRS leader without consulting him.

Mr. Long will be the shortest-tenured IRS commissioner confirmed by the Senate since the position was created in 1862.

The agency also has undergone a series of massive job cuts, ushered in by Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported that the agency has been slashed from 103,000 workers in January to 77,000 workers in May.. Most of the reductions came from DOGE’s deferred resignation program. The workforce reductions were part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy.

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.