Kiwi broadcaster Paul Henry pledges support for President Donald ...
By Tom Rose
Digital Producer & Editorial Assistant·NZ Herald·
7 Nov, 2024 02:16 AM3 mins to read
Paul Henry sent a clear message on election day that he was rooting for Donald Trump to win, wearing a hat that read: "I'm voting for a convicted felon". Composite / AFP / Getty Images / Instagram
Kiwi broadcasting legend Paul Henry pledged his support for US President-elect Donald Trump on Instagram yesterday while hosting a US election party on Waiheke Island.
Despite not being able to legally vote in the US election, Henry has split most of his time between California and Auckland since semi-retiring in 2016. The 64-year-old speaks fondly of the United States and owns a home in a nudist community in Palm Springs.
Yesterday, as voters were turning out to the polls in droves to decide their next president, Henry shared a selfie wearing a hat inscribed with a facetious message on his gin company’s Instagram account @thehenryspirit.
“I’m voting for the convicted felon,” read the inscribed text.
“Well, I can’t actually vote … but the fact it’s so close proves at least one thing … the United States is a true democracy - God bless America,” Henry wrote alongside the selfie, complete with filters and a blurred background.
“Trump 2024 baby. Way to go Paul,” wrote the top-liked comment, while the next-liked comment came from a user who wrote: “LGBT (Liberty, Guns, Beer, Trump)”; a political play-on-words referencing the LGBTQ+ community. Henry shared his agreement by liking both comments.
In his broadcasting years, Henry publicly laid out his views on homosexuality when he was co-host on TV1′s Breakfast.
Discussing a proposed law change that would allow homosexual couples to adopt children in a broadcast on August 20, 2009, Henry said he felt “iffy” with the proposal and claimed that homosexuality was “unnatural”, despite acknowledging it can be found “through all species”.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority declined to uphold a complaint made over Henry’s comments at the time.
One concerned Kiwi woman commented on Henry’s latest post, writing “the rest of the world knows” there will be “no democracy if Trump wins”. The former host of The Paul Henry Show wrote a short reply: “He certainly is a mixed bag.”
Henry also liked another person’s reply to the Kiwi woman’s comment that said the people voted for Trump “as a protest vote against ‘the system’ ... hopefully it will finally incite the revolution the US needs ... the revolution that the world also needs the US to have”.
Remaining positive and unbothered over criticism of his political stance, Henry has previously spoken about his support for Trump, criticising the US media for its reporting on the President-elect ever since he made his foray into politics nearly a decade ago.
Speaking to Jonathan Milnes from Cook Islands News in 2019, Henry equated Trump’s populism - a political approach aimed at courting the support of ordinary people through perpetuating anti-establishment rhetoric that frames the “elite” as self-serving and against the interests of “the people” - with his own role in broadcasting media, stating that “if you’re entertaining, you’re a populist.”
Acknowledging himself as a man with populist appeal, Henry added: “I didn’t try to be, I just naturally was.”
Henry has become increasingly involved in political movements at home and abroad.
On top of his outspoken support for Trump over the years, Henry joined the Act Party’s “Change Makers” event in June as a guest speaker. He chastised the Sixth Labour Government (2017-23) for burdening New Zealand with “astonishing debt” and pursuing “social engineering in a country full of mutes too afraid to say ‘Enough already’”.
Henry added he “believed that Act could be the last cab left in the rank heading in the right direction”, receiving a round of applause in response.
Tom Rose is an Auckland-based digital producer and editorial assistant for the Herald who covers lifestyle, entertainment, and travel.
