Gary Belis arrived in New Zealand to escape Donald Trump, but he isn’t sure it’s far enough.
“I left the day before Trump’s inauguration. As soon as people hear my American accent they want to talk about Trump and I came to New Zealand to get away from it all,” Gary Belis said.
“I may have to tell people I’m Canadian.”
Belis had announced from the very start, that if Trump was elected, he wouldn’t be waiting around.
“I usually have a summer rental in Cape Cod off the coast of Massachusetts and in renewing my lease I put a clause that if Donald Trump was elected that the contract would end and I’d get my deposit back, ” Gary Belis said.
“It’s very distressing to me what’s going on,”Gary Belis said.
Belis has been pursuing Trump for a very long time.
“I was the head of PR for Fortune Magazine. I was asked to review his book, I didn’t much like it. We (the magazine) got a very nasty letter from him who demanded I get fired.”
“A year after that, Fortune ran a positive on him and he wrote another letter to the editor of Fortune. Trump praised the reporter and said Fortune had come a long way since publishing the worst review ever.”
“What’s interesting to me is he hasn’t developed in any way. People in public life usually roll with the punches and he has shown no sign of that and now as President he has some very powerful levers at his fingertips.”
“His inability to take criticism is quite frightening.”
In spite of the fact that Belis holds only a 90 day tourist visa, he is planing to prolong his stay.
“I might hop scotch from New Zealand to Australia, then Africa, I don’t have a set plan yet.”
Already retired, Belis hopes to have a rest by taking a 12 day cruise.
“I chose Auckland because it’s New Zealand’s biggest city, I got a direct flight and the cruise will take me around a number of other ports.”
“I’ve never been here before and I’m kind of letting spontaneity rule here.”
However, he also said the time would come when he would return to the US.
“I am politically active so I may say it’s time to go back there and make a difference. Right now I just needed to get out of the country,” Gary Belis said.
