Trump names Billy Long as IRS head

President-elect Trump said he would nominate former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) to serve as the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in a Wednesday post on Truth Social.

“I am pleased to announce that former Congressman Billy Long, of the Great State of Missouri, will be appointed to serve as the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” Trump wrote.

“Billy brings 32 years of experience running his own businesses in Real Estate and, as one of the premier Auctioneers in the Country,” he added.

Trump said his relationship with Long, who currently works as a business and tax adviser, dates back to 2011 and described him as a “people person” who was “well respected on both sides of the aisle.”

Long does not have a college degree, although he briefly attended the University of Missouri before dropping out in 1976, according to Ballotpedia. 

He later completed an auction training program at the Missouri Auction School and went on to earn the title of best auctioneer in the Ozarks for seven years in a row.

The current IRS commissioner, Danny Werfel, has three degrees from Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Cornell University, respectively.

Werfel was appointed to a five-year term by President Biden in 2022, which will likely be cut short by Long if the Senate can confirm him. 

Long likened himself to Trump’s political circle after launching an unsuccessful bid to represent Missouri in the Senate in 2022. He hired Jamestown Associates, a Republican media firm that debuted advertisements for Trump’s first presidential race, to oversee his media strategy, and the former president’s fundraising aficionado Caroline Wren to help handle his campaign expenditures in addition to Kellyanne Conway, according to Politico.

He has made frequent appearances on Fox News with Tucker Carlson while trying to step into the political limelight and also previously served as a talk show host on KWTO AM 560 in Springfield, with a listening area that covered 95 counties.