Andrew Dickens: Why New Zealanders love and loathe Donald Trump

I’ve been watching a lot of the late night shows this week from America on YouTube. 

Fallon, Kimmel and Colbert, all of them have used the same joke - “oh my god... it’s only been a week” 

And then the audience cheers or laughs or boos or cries, or more likely all of that, all at once because what a week it's been.

The second golden era of Trump kicked off and he started doing things, brilliant things.

Colombia won’t take deportees, so hit them with killer tariffs and economic sanctions that take hold in a week. 

Within 12 hours Colombia folded. Crisis over, back to work, business as usual.

That was just one day.

A short crisis is so much better than a long festering one where nothing happens.

Or take the ceasefire in Gaza. Trump said call a ceasefire, rebuild Gaza.   

Well you know that’s what everyone wants. Jewish, Arab and American construction tycoons - because there’s peace and money there. 

Gaza may be rebuilt as Israeli condos or Palestinian homes with or without Arab money. But who cares, there’s a ceasefire.

Now this may have long term consequences, but again who cares! There’s a ceasefire. Thank God something finally happened.

It’s been a week of rapid and effective decisions and that’s what you can do with executive power and every level of government behind you.

I talked earlier about how MMP causes indecisive leadership in New Zealand. 

Well, Donald Trump is the antithesis of MMP, and that’s probably why so many Kiwis loathe him while so many New Zealanders love him.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know what I've been doing that They've been watching
a lot of the late night TV shows from America.
You can see them on YouTube, and that's Fallon and
Kimmel and Colbert, and you know, this week, all of
them have used the exact same joke, all of them.
They've all said the same thing. And the joke is this,
Oh my god, it's only been a week. And then
the crowd goes off and I don't know if they're

(00:21):
cheering or laughing or booing or crying, but I've got
a theory that they're probably doing all of that all
at once. Because what a week. The second Golden Era
of Trump kicked off and he started doing things and
it was just news news, news, news news. Mister Trump
is now in your news feed twenty four to seven.
He's back, baby, he is so back. He went away
for four years. He is back. He's a dynamo when

(00:43):
it comes to making people talk about stuff, and he
does stuff. Columbia, Columbia won't take deportees, so what does
Trump do? Hits them with a killer tariff and economic
sansions say this is gonna take hold in a week.
Within twelve hours, Columbia folded within twelve hours. It's the
fastest flip in history, stunning crisis over back to work

(01:06):
business as usual. That was just one day of the
Trump management. And a short crisis is so much better
than a long, festering one when nothing happens, wouldn't you agree?
Or the ceasefire in Gaza. So Trump comes out and says,
call a ceasefire, rebuild Gaza. Well, everybody wants to rebuild Gaza.
Jews want to rebuild Gaza, Arabs want to rebuild Garda. Gaza,

(01:27):
American construction tycoons and people like Trump want to rebuild Gaza.
There's money there, so guess what, Netta? Who did it?
And just like that cease fire, Gaza may be rebuilt
as Israeli condos or Palestinian homes, with or without Arab
money or American money. But who cares? There's a ceasefire.

(01:49):
Now this may have long term consequences, but again, who cares?
There's a ceasefire. Thank god, something finally happened. That's what
Trump does. He makes the happen. And some people worry
a lot about, oh, what might happen next, might be banned,
But often you have no idea what's going to happen next.
It's been a week of rapid and effective decisions. And

(02:10):
that's what you can do when you've got the executive
power in every level of government behind you. He's the
closest you've got to an autocrat that you could get democratically.
And I talked earlier about privatization, and I talked about
how MMP causes indecisive leadership in New Zealand. Well, Donald
Trump is the antithesis of MMP, which is probably why

(02:32):
so many Kiwis loathe them, but it's also why so
many New Zealanders love him. He just says yes, he
doesn't say no. Christopher Luxea must be so jealous. For
more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to
News Talks it be from five am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.