Question About Trump Gets Top Diplomat Fired

New Zealand's top diplomat in the UK is being sent home after publicly criticizing President Trump's grasp on history. At a think-tank event in London on Tuesday, High Commissioner Phil Goff referred to the 1938 Munich Agreement, which gave Adolf Hitler the green light to annex part of Czechoslovakia, the BBC reports. Goff noted that Winston Churchill told then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, "You had the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, yet you will have war." Trump "has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?" Goff asked Elina Valtonen, Finland's foreign minister, who'd just delivered a speech on European efforts to counter Russian aggression.

As the audience at Chatham House laughed, Valtonen, smiling, said she'd limit herself to saying Churchill had made "very timeless remarks," the New York Times reports. Winston Peters, New Zealand's foreign minister, said Goff's remarks had made his position "untenable," RNZ reports. "When you're 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," Peters said. He said firing Goff was one of the hardest things he'd had to do in his career, but "if he had made that comment about Germany, France, Tonga, or Samoa, I'd have been forced to take this action."

Goff, 71, has served as leader of the Labour Party and mayor of Auckland in his long political career. His term as high commissioner—the equivalent of an ambassador—wasn't due to expire until the end of the year. In a post on X, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the remarks seemed like a "very thin excuse" for firing Goff. She noted that many people drew parallels between Trump's actions and the 1938 agreement at the recent Munich Security Conference. This isn't the first gaffe from Goff, the Guardian reports. At an event in 2023 for New Zealanders attending the coronation of King Charles III, Goff offended the Maori king by saying nobody there had experienced a coronation before. (More New Zealand stories.)