Liddell chance of leg-up for NZ
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has downplayed any suggestion that Chris Liddell’s appointment to a top White House job could be an advantage for New Zealand.
US President Donald Trump has appointed the Matamata-born businessman as his deputy chiefof-staff with responsibility for policy co-ordination.
A former executive at Microsoft and General Motors, Liddell will be tasked with overseeing Trump’s policy process, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Liddell will report to White House chief of staff John Kelly and work closely with deputy chief of staff for operations Joe Hagin.
‘‘You can always hope that having a New Zealander in such an important role will mean our relationship is strengthened,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘But I hold no expectation. He has a much wider job to do than to just sit and advocate for New Zealand in the United States.’’
National Party leader Simon Bridges said it was an ‘‘exciting thing’’ for New Zealanders to have someone ‘‘so high up in the administration no matter whether it is a Republican or Democrat’’.
Peter Field – a New York-born historian who studied with President Barack Obama at Columbia University and who is now a professor at Canterbury University – said it was hard to know what Liddell’s role would involve given this White House was so different from others.
‘‘There are a couple of things which we know for sure, which is that Liddell has two characteristics that make this appointment just what we would expect.’’
Field said he believed Liddell was close to Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner. ‘‘That makes him in ‘the family’.’’
Liddell’s former role as chief financial officer of Microsoft would also have been an asset in his rise as it was not a ‘‘Washington beltway’’ role, he said.
Auckland University professor of international relations Stephen Hoadley said he hoped Liddell could fulfil some of the role previously undertaken by former economic adviser Gary Cohn, who resigned in the wake of the proposed tariffs on steel and aluminium.
‘‘That is to gently remind Trump that it is not good for US economic interests to do what Trump is trying to do and that moderation is a much better policy.’’
But Hoadley said that was probably wishful thinking.