![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/11e59c67-image-1024x683.png\")
Christopher Luxon meeting with Trump in South Korea, October 2025. Photo credit: RNZ <\/p>\nDavid Seymour slipped up on Herald Now. Ryan Bridge caught Seymour admitting that a critical minerals deal with Trump had, in fact, been discussed at Cabinet. This was awkward, given Christopher Luxon\u2019s insistence that it hadn\u2019t. Marama Davidson smirked. If the Government won\u2019t be transparent with the public, at least someone tripped over the truth.<\/p>\n
No serious New Zealander believes that doing \u201cdeals\u201d with Donald Trump is a pragmatic exercise. When Trump threatens tariffs to force countries into mining agreements, he\u2019s coercing. History has been remarkably consistent on this point. Giving in teaches him that his threats work.<\/p>\n
Christopher Luxon meeting with Trump in South Korea, October 2025. Photo credit: RNZ <\/p>\n
This is why Luxon\u2019s handling of Trump\u2019s push for critical minerals should worry anyone who cares about Aotearoa\u2019s sovereignty, environment, and international standing. And this concern has deepened in recent days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Fast Track expert panel has shared a draft decision to decline Trans-Tasman Resources\u2019 seabed mining application. That draft is now sitting in a political danger zone \u2013 under discussion at Cabinet, and directly intersecting with Trump\u2019s push for access to critical minerals.<\/p>\n
This is important timing. Any attempt to lean on New Zealand to \u201creconsider\u201d seabed mining now risks becoming overt political pressure on an active regulatory decision. That would be brazen interference.<\/p>\n
The draft decision from the panel also ruptured a convenient myth from the mining camp \u2013 that seabed mining is merely \u201ccontroversial\u201d or \u201cdivisive.\u201d The panel\u2019s assessment reflects what New Zealanders have said for more than a decade: there is no social licence for seabed mining in Aotearoa, and the touted economic gains from the industry don\u2019t outweigh the environmental and cultural harms it would cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Luxon ignores this in favour of foreign pressure, it sets a precedent that expert advice, public opposition, and environmental law can all be overridden when a powerful brat demands it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0be574dd-image.png\")
Resistance to Donald Trump is happening all over the world. Above: Protest art created on beach near Turnberry golf resort. Creator:\u00a0Saf Suleyman\u00a0|\u00a0Credit:\u00a0\u00a9 Saf Suleyman \/ Greenpeace<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s demand is predictably exploitative \u2013 just let American interests mine Aotearoa\u2019s critical minerals, or face punitive tariffs. It\u2019s barefaced predation. Trump is obsessed with keeping pace with China\u2019s access to the minerals he wants for tech and defence. Instead of investing in the ethical and intelligent move \u2013 responsible domestic supply, or genuine international cooperation, he reaches for the same tool every time. Threatening his \u201cfriends.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea that New Zealand could somehow \u201cdo a good deal\u201d under these conditions is a horrifying but equally hilarious fantasy. We\u2019ve seen how this plays out. Justin Trudeau tried cooperation during NAFTA renegotiations, accepting Trump\u2019s framing and reopening talks under pressure. The result was a new deal\u2026 followed by tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium anyway. Appeasement didn\u2019t buy Canada protection; it just invited more demands.<\/p>\n
Japan tried a different tactic, credit to them. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opted for personal flattery \u2013 golf, praise, avoidance of confrontation. It failed. Trump imposed tariffs regardless and demanded lopsided trade concessions. Political capital spent, absolutely nothing gained.<\/p>\n
The lesson is so, so clear. Trump treats concessions as proof that his petulant pressure works. He doesn\u2019t reward his friendships \u2013 in fact, I\u2019m not sure he ever has.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Which brings me to the real risk for Aotearoa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Critical minerals extraction is, to put it lightly, a permanent decision. Once seabeds are mined and ecosystems destroyed \u2013 whether in the South Taranaki Bight or elsewhere \u2013 there is no rewind button. The damage to marine life, food systems, and taonga species will outlive Trump, Luxon, and this entire political cycle. The profits, meanwhile, flow offshore. Local iwi, the rest of the Taranaki community and their children, will be left with the mess.<\/p>\n
If we show the US that we\u2019ll bend under their threats, we become an easy target. Today it\u2019s minerals, tomorrow it\u2019ll be defence spending, or expected silence in the face of human rights abuses. Small countries survive by being principled and hard to bully.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New Zealand has had this reputation before. We stood up against global powers in decades gone by on the nuclear issue, taking the moral high ground and refusing to bend to nations who wanted everyone to look the other way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But once that reputation dies, coercion becomes cheaper and more frequent. There is a much better option, it just takes a bit of ol\u2019 fashioned courage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since taking office, Canada\u2019s new PM, Mark Carney, has ostensibly figured out Trump. There\u2019s been no ego stroking. Even before his standing ovation at Davos, he\u2019s made it clear that Canada will not be pushed into bad agreements by force.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The result so far has been good \u2013 Canada has room to manoeuvre, a reluctant kind of respect from Trump, and a relatively unified population.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to avoid the conclusion that Luxon hasn\u2019t studied this at all. His loyalty should be to the people of Aotearoa, who have said no to seabed mining for over a decade. That goes for all eight Taranaki iwi, whose waters this seabed mine would most effect, it goes for the surfers and the scientists, the environmental lawyers, the communities who\u2019ve had to fight hard against this project for too long.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are clues for Luxon in Greenpeace\u2019s #timetoresist campaign. <\/p>\n
New Zealand is not without leverage. Multilateral partnerships exist. Global markets exist. We are not obliged to trash our environment to appease a US president who governs by tantrum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes the smartest move is also the simplest one. Stare down the bully and wait for him to realise there will be no gameplay today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Seymour slipped up on Herald Now. Ryan Bridge caught Seymour admitting that a critical minerals deal with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[138223,111,43,139,69,18718,155379,135,151847],"class_list":["post-275854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-fast-track","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oceans","tag-peoplepower","tag-politics","tag-seabed-mining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}