Red carpet machines and malfunctioning teleprompters: on the road with Jacinda Ardern in the US

• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is on her first trip to the United States since the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Ardern will meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington DC on Wednesday (NZT).
• Two key members of the delegation – Mfat boss Chris Seed and chief press secretary Andrew Campbell – have tested positive for Covid-19.
• Ardern received an honorary degree from Harvard University and used her commencement speech to take aim at disinformation and the role played by the big tech companies.
• New Zealand and California signed a deal to cooperate on climate change.

The business part of the trip is done, and now Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern heads to Washington DC to talk trade, China, Ukraine, gun reform and the US in the Asia-Pacific with President Joe Biden.

As the tired and somewhat dusty business delegation boarded a Defence Force flight to San Francisco on Sunday it was a case of mission accomplished – at least for that end of the prime minister’s trip.

Deal signed with California to cooperate on climate, tick. A couple of private sector tech deals and zero-carbon beef launched, tick. Ardern and business leaders getting out and shopping for capital and tourists, tick. Meeting with BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment fund, as well as tech giants Amazon and Microsoft, tick.

The celebrations in Seattle had gone late into the night before in a hotel bar, with some finishing in the early hours of the morning playing pool in a dingy Irish pub called the Blarney Stone.

At moments like these, you realise people never really grow out of school camps, as the business delegates sang You Are My Sunshine to the Defence Force crew manning the flight.

A group that had grown tight, a sense of mission, contacts made and a prime minister whose access and performance in the room blew them away – even if their politics are markedly different from hers.

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To date, the trip has been one like no other. For diplomatic and Government officials and the media contingent, there have been – so far – nine flights, dozens of hours and travelling from New Zealand to the West Coast of the US across to the East Coast and back again. There’s plenty more yet to come.

On the first night in Los Angeles, New Zealand’s local diplomatic chief, consul-general Jeremy Clarke-Watson held a barbecue at the New Zealand residence. This was the first significant Government trip the consulate had been involved in since Covid-19.

Clarke-Watson arrived in the middle of 2020 when Covid was really gearing up and life is only now returning to normal. Trade and Enterprise officials, led on this trip by investment general manager Dylan Lawrence (Ngāti Raukawa-ki-te-Tonga, Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toarangatirawere) were also on the ground trying to tee up opportunities for the companies present.

Among the business delegation and assembled media there was a feeling of both expectation and relief in the air. The only person absent was the prime minister who had to delay her trip to the US to comply with Covid guidelines.

Essentially, the business side of the trip was a networking opportunity created by doors being opened up by the prime minister.

Companies ranged from those producing UBCO electric motorbikes, Animation Research Ltd (which for example, does graphics for the America’s Cup and the PGA golf tour) to Straker Translations. There were the more traditional companies: Zespri, Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms. Tourism NZ chairperson Jamie Tuuta (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Maru) and Māori Tourism chief executive Pania Tyson-Nathan (Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Kahungunu) were out there pushing the tourism agenda.

The trip itself has played to both Ardern and the companies’ strengths. The cities visited were either Washington DC (political) or eastern seaboard , cosmopolitan cities bursting with opportunity.

The prime minister was among friends. The clean, green, sustainable message as well as that of manaakitanga fell on receptive ears. These cities: LA, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco are rich, globalised and are resident to the “anywheres” of this world, people for whom education and work means they can live in most places. They are mostly liberal, mostly care deeply about climate and sustainability, but also the economic growth to underpin it all. Politically, they tend not to be the places that decide US presidential elections.

After two long years stuck on domestic politics, Ardern has been in all of our lives far more than any prime minister, probably, in New Zealand’s history. Now, back on the global stage, without sounding like a sycophant, it is difficult to express just how popular she is, and just how effective she is at selling brand New Zealand.

Like any good political leader she feeds on meeting people and her stump speech to an international audience is strong.

An unglamorous and sometimes unclean job

Travelling with the prime minister on a trip like this is a gruelling affair. You are on and off planes and shuttled to various events during the day to see what’s going on, question people, get a sense of the vibe, and of course, meet other Kiwis. It’s a real privilege to observe and report back on it for our readers.

There are, however, logistical challenges. It may sound great jetting around the US visiting exotic towns and seeing interesting things. The reality is quite different and very unglamorous – for one, flying during an almost two-week trip, getting enough time in any one place to get any clothes washed is a challenge. Getting stories away between flights and security checks, writing on planes, in vans, on laps in parks. And a lot of hurrying in order to wait around and see what events unfold. And add terrible mobile internet coverage and changing time zones.

One thing that stuck with me was at the Late Show with Stephen Colbert – after showing ID and triple-vaxxed vaccine passes, the friendly security guard asked casually but matter-of-factly, “does anyone have any weapons?”. A couple of hours earlier, the news had broken that there had been a shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

This was part of the big sell. The Late Show reaches 2.7 million people per episode in the US.

Hanging over much of the trip was whether the prime minister would get a Biden meeting. It had almost been secured to the point of an announcement when Ardern got Covid, throwing out the timing. The Americans, understandably, do not want their president to get sick.

Spray it

From New York with a 4am start after a solid two hours sleep under the belt, the plane left for a few hours of meetings in Washington DC. When you arrive at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland – where the US president catches Air Force One – there is a military person standing by with what can only be described as a red carpet machine. The soldier waits until the appropriate time and then sprints about 30 metres unrolling the carpet before packing up the machine. Salutes and greetings abound. Then off to the imperial, but also bleak, US Capitol Hill.

Standing around waiting on US Senators in grand hallways is a tiring business. There are two senators from each state, and they are well resourced. One staffer for Jon Ossoff (the youngest senator in the US who hails from Georgia) said each senator’s office has 30 staff in the capital, about 15 or so back in their home state – 45 odd in total depending on the senator, how senior they are and how much funding they get. For one senator. Politics is a big money business.

The set pieces for media also work differently. At the start of meetings there is a “quick spray”, which means the media set up in a room, the leaders come in, shake hands, there is a spray of photos, video and some questions fired at the politicians before they meet.

Very formulaic, and can last for as little as 30 seconds. Being led around the labyrinthine Capitol buildings and offices by young earnest staffers, none of whom seemed 100% sure of where to go, was a highlight. There’s even an underground tram between Senate and House of Representatives offices.

Sitting in Mitt Romney’s office and with tiredness sitting in, the senator’s young staff offered us food from the massive snacks bowl. It was basically a big bowl of lollies, chips and various other processed goods. When Romney himself came in, he looked older than he seems on television – but I probably picture the Romney that ran for president in 2012 and lost to Barack Obama.

You hope that New Zealand has some heavy hitter allies in Congress. And the number of members who have some connection is significant – for example, the independent senator from Maine, a genial man named Angus King who met Ardern, unexpectedly revealed that his daughter lived in Devonport.

There is even a chair of the Friends of New Zealand caucus, Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Seattle. When asked how he became the head of this lofty group, he replied that he went to a drinks event – every year the caucus has a wine tasting – and landed the job.

A political mentor of his, the late senator Ellen Tauscher, had chaired the caucus but when she was promoted to the Obama cabinet , she shoulder-tapped Larsen. “She said, Rick, you’re gonna be the chair of the Friends of New Zealand caucus. That’s how I became the chair of caucus.”

He said he has travelled to, and learned much about the country since.

Then, back on the plane again. Off to Boston.

A political superstar

One of the advantages of travelling with the prime minister in the US is the motorcade – off the Air Force plane and into a row of black vehicles accompanied by police cars – usually about 10 or so vehicles.

The prime minister’s Harvard speech was clearly a big deal in front of an estimated 30,000. We arrived early at the university ceremony, which was full of bright-eyed graduands. Most of it was pretty boring.

There were long-winded speeches from student leaders (lengthy oration is a frequent occurrence in the US) and a Latin proclamation that seemed to drag on forever. Ardern spoke right at the end and delivered the speech – which looked a bit rambling on paper – brilliantly, especially given the fact her teleprompter kept breaking down.

“I actually would have liked to have had a little more of an opportunity to be in the moment, as it were,” Ardern said. “But my teleprompter malfunctioned fairly consistently through the speech today, about every 10 seconds, the speech would disappear entirely for about three seconds of time.”

Guns, abortion and climate change got the biggest cheers – no surprise given the crowd in attendance. Proving that even one of the world’s most prestigious institutions of higher education is not immune from global supply chain crunch, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow explained that getting enough chairs for the event was a significant challenge.

Back in the motorcade on the plane to San Francisco. Stories to file. Meeting with the slick California Governor Gavin Newsom (who a day later tested positive for Covid-19). That stand-up was arranged in front of the New Zealand section of the San Francisco botanical gardens – but the sign said Australia. Not to be beaten, NZTE’s Lawrence and Tyson-Nathan arranged a piece of paper with New Zealand on it, before officials returned with a more professional black blanket.

Back on plane to Seattle. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft await.

It is a big logistical operation, the Defence Force which coordinates everything needs to bring two crews with them to staff the planes, and manage flying workload. Personnel to service the planes and provide support travel also. There has been significant excitement among the Air Force crew who support the whole mission. They too have had careers and jobs disrupted by Covid’s long march.

The next part of the trip is the pointy political end. And the challenge for the prime minister is now to make the Biden meeting count. Getting this meeting is no small feat, and it says something that the White House moved to make it work despite Ardern’s positive Covid test. The reasons are simple and sharpened by the Texas shootings

Ardern is a global superstar for political left-progressives, and has a high public profile. Because of this, while the meeting is politically positive for Ardern – usually polls respond kindly to seeing a prime minister on the world stage – even if people don’t agree with their politics.