Christopher Luxon snatches some facetime with Donald Trump at APEC

Wednesday, 29 October 2025

Gyeongju, South Korea | Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had an informal one-on-one meeting with US President Donald Trump in Korea on Wednesday evening, chatting about golf, the beauty of New Zealand, and Luxon’s hair.

Luxon had openly spoken of his desire to meet for the first time with Trump ahead of leaving for two high-level summits in Asia.

He spoke to Trump one-on-one for about 10 minutes ahead of an informal dinner with Trump and six other world leaders also attending APEC, which lasted over an hour.

Luxon declined to confirm whether the US tariffs on New Zealand - set at 15% following ‘Liberation Day’ earlier this year - were discussed, but did indicate tariffs came up at the dinner.

But video released of the start and end of the meeting show Trump calling Luxon a “beautiful man,” praising New Zealand’s beauty, and then the pair discussing both golf courses and golfers, with Luxon inviting Trump to visit New Zealand to play golf at some point.

The sit-down dinner party consisted of Trump, Luxon, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong - all sat tightly around a circular table.

Asked by Kiwi media if he had a message for New Zealand, Trump said: “I like your man from New Zealand.”

Luxon: A chance to build rapport

Luxon said he would not get into a “blow by blow” of the conversation he had with Trump or at the dinner with other world leaders.

“I'm not going to go through blow-by-blow of what we did talk about, but obviously the first part of the one-on-one engagement was really a chance for us to build some rapport and some relationship with each other,” Luxon said.

“We talked a little bit about my time in America and those sorts of things, and our business backgrounds.”

He said the US was very aware of New Zealand’s position on tariffs and that the country would continue to make the case for free trade.

Asked directly if tariffs had come up, Luxon again declined to go into specifics, but did say at the wider dinner “you can imagine there was a conversation about tariffs in general.”

“We were there to build relationship and to make that personal connection as a first off and a very short interaction up front. I was very honoured that they had invited me and presently invited me to the dinner, and it was a fantastic opportunity to canvas different issues with leaders as well.”

Luxon declined to comment on whether Trump’s spate of trade deals - he signed four in one day earlier this week - were him fixing an issue of his own creation.

“He is acting as the leader of the US and acting in America's interests in the same way I act as New Zealand's interests,” Luxon said.

Luxon has downplayed the likelihood of Trump changing his mind on New Zealand’s 15% tariffs any time soon, despite New Zealand purchasing about $2b of military helicopters from the US, which will significantly alter our trade balance.

The tariffs impose a minimum 10% tariffs on almost all imports, but go up to 15% or higher for countries who export more to the US than they import, which includes New Zealand.

Trump confirmed he was planning on meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday morning, their first meeting of his second term - and the first since the new trade war between the two countries.

He said he was hopeful a deal would be struck between the two countries.

Luxon said the meeting was incredibly important, as China and the USA were the world’s two largest economies.

As Trump waited to his photo taken with Lee, Luxon joked that Lee had given him “grief” over his hair to Trump. Luxon is bald.

Trump responded that Luxon had “beautiful hair.”

The menu at the dinner included dumplings made with truffles and 'ogol' chicken, which is entirely black in appearance.

The entire table raised their glasses for a toast at one point, despite Luxon and Trump both being non-drinkers.

Luxon said he wasn’t sure what was actually in the glass, but he had Pepsi Max with dinner and Trump was “presumably” on Coke Zeros.

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