US ambassador pick controversial
DONALD Trump’s pick to be the next United States ambassador to New Zealand has been labelled an ‘‘insult’’.
Scott Brown, a former US Senator, is being vetted to become Trump’s representative in New Zealand, according to reports in the Boston Globe.
And like his boss in the White House, Brown has a controversial history. The 57-year-old supports torture, posed nude for a photoshoot, and was named as having groped and made sexually inappropriate comments towards by his fellow Fox News contributor Andrea Tantaros. He denies the allegations.
New Zealanders reacted with surprise and dismay at the appointment.
Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand founding member Nasreen Hannif said: ‘‘It’s not someone who we would agree with. Bringing him down here would not be good for our community.
‘‘Everybody here has a negative image of President Trump and what his policies are. It will definitely not go down well with the Muslim community.
‘‘Also, being a supporter of Donald Trump will form an impression of him. We don’t know what he will be bringing to New Zealand.’’
Former US intelligence adviser Paul Buchanan said Brown’s appointment was an ‘‘insult’’.
‘‘It just shows you what importance we have to the Trump Administration.’’
Buchanan said Brown’s support of waterboarding was ‘‘very troubling’’
Brown was ‘‘not the brightest bulb’’, and while he could grow into the job, he was ‘‘pretty much useless as a senator’’.
He said that the appointment would be a reward for supporting Trump, because Brown knew nothing of New Zealand. ‘‘It’d be an extended holiday. New Zealand deserves a little bit better, certainly better than this guy.’’
Brown, who now works as a Fox News commentator, curried Trump’s favour by endorsing him at a pivotal point of the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, just after Trump had lost Iowa to Ted Cruz and just before the New Hampshire primary.
Brown is a lawyer and former model, and in 1982 won Cosmopolitan magazine’s ‘‘America’s Sexiest Man’’ contest, appearing as the centrefold.