New Zealand on Thursday recalled its top diplomat in Britain after he made comments questioning President Trump’s understanding of history at a public event, in a sign of the unease and sensitivities around expressing disagreements with the Trump administration.
Phil Goff, New Zealand’s high commissioner to Britain — the equivalent of an ambassador between Commonwealth countries — made the comments in London on Tuesday at an event about the war in Ukraine and peace in Europe.
Mr. Goff spoke up with a question after a speech by Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, at the Chatham House think tank, in which she spoke about the role of Europe in the face of Russian aggression and resolving the war in Ukraine.
Citing Winston Churchill on the choice between dishonor and war, Mr. Goff asked: “President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office, but do you think he really understands history?”
The audience laughed. Invoking Churchill’s criticism of his predecessor as prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, for reaching a deal with Hitler, Mr. Goff appeared to make a wry allusion to Mr. Trump’s embrace of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Trump has falsely suggested that Ukraine, not Mr. Putin, is responsible for the war.
But Ms. Valtonen deflected, saying that Churchill had “made very timeless remarks.”
In a statement on Thursday, New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters, described Mr. Goff’s remarks as “deeply disappointing” and said that they made his position “untenable.”
“When you’re in that position, you represent the government and the policies of the day,” Mr. Peters told reporters in New Zealand after summarily dismissing Mr. Goff. “You’re not able to free think — you are the face of New Zealand.”
Mr. Goff is a longtime politician and the former mayor of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. He was appointed to the London post in 2022 under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was often championed as a leading liberal voice against Mr. Trump in his first administration. But New Zealand’s politics have since shifted sharply, with voters electing its most conservative government in decades.
Mr. Peters said that Mr. Goff’s removal was not about the U.S. government, but about conduct as a diplomat. “If he had made that comment about Germany, France, Tonga or Samoa, I’d have been forced to take this action,” Mr. Peters said.
Nevertheless, it reflected how touchy U.S. allies are becoming in trying to stay in Mr. Trump’s good graces. When reporters asked New Zealand’s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, about Mr. Trump’s Oval Office confrontation with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, he appeared to refrain from criticizing Mr. Trump. He went on to say that he still trusted Mr. Trump as an ally.
In recent months, Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, has also faced questions about whether he could continue in the job over his scathing past criticism of Mr. Trump. The comments were made before Mr. Rudd’s appointment to the position.
The Australian government backed Mr. Rudd, who deleted the critical posts from his X account. He later said in a statement that he did not want them to be construed as reflecting the views of Australia’s government.
