Top Foreign Diplomat Pays the Price Two Days After WWII Jab Against Trump
A New Zealand diplomat who tried to infer that President Donald Trump was guilty of appeasement in the style of a British leader who gave way to Adolf Hitler has paid the price for his comment.
New Zealand High Commissioner Phil Goff, who was his country’s top diplomat in Great Britain, was fired, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said, according to the BBC.
During a Tuesday event in London, Goff linked Trump with the 1938 Munich Agreement, through which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain acquiesced to Nazi Germany’s annexation of part of Czechoslovakia.
Phil Goff, who was serving as high commissioner to the UK, seemingly tried to compare Winston Churchill’s handling of Nazi Germany to Trump’s approach to Russia. #zelena pic.twitter.com/WwzCUBSLRg
— John Quigg Jr. (@johnquiggjr) March 6, 2025
Goff said, he had been reading about the agreement and quoted a remark Wisnton Churchill made to Chamberlain: “You had the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, yet you will have war.”
Goff followed that up with a comment about Trump.
“President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”
Peters called the comment “deeply disappointing” and said it made Goff’s position “untenable.”
“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,” he said.
“It’s not the way you behave as the front face of a country, diplomatically,” he said.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, who was the target of Goff’s question, said she would “limit myself” to saying Churchill “has made very timeless remarks,” according to the Associated Press.
Peters said, Goff was fired not because he jabbed America, but because the comment was not appropriate in any context, according to The New York Times.
“If he had made that comment about Germany, France, Tonga or Samoa, I’d have been forced to take this action,” Peters said.
Trump has made achieving an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia a top priority and has rebuked Ukraine for what he has denounced as its preference to achieve an unlikely military victory over ending the conflict.
On Tuesday, during his address to a joint session of Congress, Trump said he received a message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicating an interest in peace.
This was the Democrats response when President Trump mentioned PEACE in Ukraine.
They have no interest in peace. Only endless wars. pic.twitter.com/9R5y9G7ziS
— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) March 6, 2025
“Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia. Then, I’ve received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” Trump said, according to a transcript by The New York Times.
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