New Zealand has sacked its envoy to the UK after he appeared to question Donald Trump’s grasp of history.
Speaking at an event in London on Tuesday, Phil Goff likened Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine to the Munich Agreement of 1938, which saw Adolf Hitler take over Czechoslovakia.
The High Commissioner to the UK pointed out how former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was critical of the agreement at the time.
Mr Goff said: “President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”
He was referring to Trump’s extraordinary argument with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last Friday, during which he and his Vice President appeared to ambush the Ukrainian leader with claims that he had been ungrateful for US support in a fiery public exchange.
Mr Goff also highlighted the gulf between Trump and Churchill – who, while not in Government – blasted the Munich Agreement as a surrender to the threats of Nazi Germany’s dictator Adolf Hitler.
He quoted Churchill as saying to then-UK Prime minister Neville Chamberlain, “You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war.”
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters described Mr. Goff’s comments as “deeply disappointing” and making his position as High Commissioner “untenable.”
He told reporters: “When you are in that position you represent the Government and the policies of the day, you’re not able to free think, you are the face of New Zealand.”
“It’s not the way you behave as the front face of a country, diplomatically.”
This comes amid reports the mood in Russia has been “celebratory” since President Trump and Vice-President JD Vance’s public dressing down of President Zelensky last week.
The BBC’s Russia editor in Moscow Steve Rosenberg told the corporation’s Newshour radio programme: “When you read the Russian newspapers here they are celebratory”.
Russian politician Vyacheslav Nikonov told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: “The Western system is collapsing like a house of cards.”
An academic was quoted in the same paper as saying: “Russia cannot conceal its malicious pleasure.”
