In the 16 months since he was named as Donald Trump’s choice to be the next United States ambassador to New Zealand, Jared Novelly has remained something of an enigma.
Until this week, photos of the businessman were about as rare as those of Bigfoot, while he was still without a Wikipedia page as of Friday afternoon.
Novelly filled in some of the blanks during a press conference at the official ambassadorial residence in Wellington, Camperdown – “the first house I’ve had with a name,” he quipped – while offering an early hint of how he will try to advance Trump’s agenda to a sceptical Kiwi audience.
Clad in a button-up shirt, suit jacket and jeans, the Missouri native and son of an oil baron sought to humanise himself as he spoke of a gruelling first job at a coal storage warehouse – “I would blow my nose, and it would be black, I’d be coughing for hours” – followed by a stint at Blockbuster Video, then careers in oil and sports.
A failed congressional bid two decades ago had led him to realise two things: “I did not like campaigning, and I did not like raising money for myself.”
According to US donations records, he has been more comfortable handing over money to other candidates: Novelly at first backed Nikki Haley for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, donating over $50,000 to the candidate and associated organisations, although he did also give money to Trump after Haley’s withdrawal.
Asked about his relationship with Trump, Novelly said the pair had a lot in common but had not met face to face for a few years.
The president has undoubtedly made his job harder, with the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s annual Perceptions of Asia survey showing that Kiwis view the US as more of a threat than China for the first time in a decade.
Novelly said the poll result was “disappointing”, and leaned on his business background to offer up a defence of Trump’s polarising approach to the presidency.
“If you look at companies in Silicon Valley that are successful … they fly through the sky and their share prices continue to go up and up and up, and for the most part [that] is because they are a disruptor, and they disrupt the status quo…
“It’s good to every once in a while take a step back and look at the status quo and say, ‘Okay, maybe something should be changed’.
“Does that rub people the wrong way? Sometimes I suppose it does, but the alternative I don’t think is good.”
Novelly himself appears less inclined towards Trumpian digressions, holding tightly to a stack of cue cards that he used when pressed on tariffs and defence spending.
The latter issue has proven contentious of late, with US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth suggesting last month that New Zealand was “freeloading” by committing to spend just 2 percent of its GDP on the defence sector.
‘You need to see these things and realise that it’s not some sort of boogeyman that you have to worry about, and I’d really like the opportunity to work with New Zealand on that exact topic.’
US ambassador Jared Novelly, on NZ’s anti-nuclear stance
Novelly took a more diplomatic line, saying American defence officials “actually swear by the benefits of being with New Zealand” but making clear Hegseth’s sentiment holds true within the broader Trump administration.
“It’s important that you care as much about your defence as we care about your defence, and that does mean increasing spending … it’s a generational difference, and it’s necessary in the world today, and for continued safety, security, and prosperity for the US, New Zealand, and all of our partners.”
He delved into slightly riskier territory on New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance, saying he would like to see a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier make a visit to Auckland.
“They say the only thing better than having a boat is having a friend with a boat: we could stage a basketball game on the flight deck.
“You need to see these things and realise that it’s not some sort of boogeyman that you have to worry about, and I’d really like the opportunity to work with New Zealand on that exact topic.”
Any suggestion we would be strong-armed into accepting such a visit was swiftly brushed off, however, with Novelly saying: “I don’t like even my friends to just pop by and knock on the door – you want to invite them, so it requires an invite from New Zealand.
“That’s New Zealand law. I don’t change New Zealand law, I don’t write New Zealand law. It’s up to you to invite us, but I’d love to see it myself – I think everyone else would too.”
As for the Pacific’s critical minerals – a hot topic during Novelly’s confirmation hearing in March – the ambassador said he likewise would not seek to strong-arm the country into issuing exploration permits, but was happy to introduce local figures to American businesses that could help to retrieve cobalt and other rare minerals from the seabed.
Such offers may be greeted with scepticism from Pacific nations, given recent US cutbacks in aid spending. At an Independence Day event hosted by the US Embassy this week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters offered mild criticism of the perceived American pullback from the region in the form of a history lesson: “Over time, the Monroe Doctrine, and then eventual statehoods for Alaska and Hawaii extended the American sphere further westwards, firmly cementing the United States as a Pacific nation – something we need to remind you of, from time to time.”
“Stay tuned,” Novelly said when asked what the US had to offer Pacific nations, while taking aim at China’s own infrastructure loans in the region.
“What China’s doing in some of these Pacific Island countries is creating a debt trap where it’s some big infrastructure project they’re going to have to pay a debt for, and unfortunately the quality of the work probably is not going to last past how long they’re going to have to be paying off that.”
In both his remarks to the press and his Independence Day speech, Novelly was at pains to emphasise he is not a natural public speaker.
He may be unlikely to host the sports news on a morning breakfast show, as Trump’s last ambassador (former senator Scott Brown) famously did, but Novelly seems more likely to charm than bully New Zealanders into backing the president.
Whether he has any luck in doing so, given the constant stream of bad news out of the States, is another matter.
