Many New Zealanders are not critical of the US President's erratic tweeting, says US Ambassador Scott Brown, and instead, more Kiwis tell him they are fond of Donald Trump.
On TVNZ1's Q+A last night, Mr Brown was questioned by host Corin Dann about Mr Trump's "out there" tweeting behaviour.
"Do you find yourself going round the country having to defend Donald Trump?" Mr Dann asked.
"One night, he might be having a crack at the Iranian president. The next day, he's calling for the end to a special investigation against him... Even Winston Peters himself said he couldn't be sure that Donald Trump was making the tweets and didn't want his officials monitoring the Twitter feed."
"Are are you having to find that New Zealanders are criticising you about it?"
But it turns out the New Zealand public are warmer towards the US President, or at least they are when speaking to the US Ambassador.
"First of all, we love it," Mr Brown said.
He said he had an "informal poll" of the reaction of New Zealanders to Mr Trump. About 35 to 40 per cent generally were of the sentiment of 'I love your guy, shh, don't say anything', Mr Brown said.
"Then the other maybe 25 per cent, they say, 'I love what he's doing. I just don’t like how he's doing it'."
"And then the other group say, 'Hey, I hate you; I hate him'."
Mr Brown said he tells those people to forget about the tweets and the personality and to look at the progress Mr Trump had with North Korea.
Mr Dann said it would be difficult for migrants and minorities to forget about some of the tweets.
"Certainly there are ethnic groups in America who feel they are under siege from the Trump administration. They can't forget about the tweets," Mr Dann said.
SHARE ME