Outrage as presidential donor is lined up as Ambassador to Wellington
Critics say US representative knows nothing of this country and would be coming here for an extended holiday. Hannah Martin and Adam Poulopoulos report.
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 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. He has a past history of torture so would not be good to our 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.’’
‘‘For Brown to say he supports these kinds of techniques shows the depths of his ignorance.’’
Buchanan said that, unlike Brown, he has some knowledge on interrogation techniques, and is certain torture doesn’t work.
‘‘It’s a punishment, not an effective interrogation technique. Any claims to the contrary are false.’’
Buchanan said Brown is ‘‘not the brightest bulb’’, and while he could grow into the job, he was ‘‘pretty much useless as a Senator.’’
The appointment would come as a reward for supporting Trump, because the former Senator knew nothing of New Zealand.
Brown has previously said he wants to come here to cycle, but that’s about it, Buchanan said. ‘‘It’d be an extended holiday. New Zealand deserves a little bit better, certainly better than this guy.’’
Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Kennedy Graham said he had sympathy for anyone who had to uphold Trump’s contradictory foreign policy, but Brown should be given time to prove himself.
‘‘On the upside, the guy has political experience in the senate, at state level and at federal level . . . it could be worse in that respect.’’
Graham said Brown identified himself as a ‘‘Reagan Republican’’.
‘‘We would not agree with a great deal of his political views . . . but then we wouldn’t agree with Reagan’s, George W’s or even some of Obama’s.’’
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, posing as the magazine’s centrefold.