New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern exchanged friendly fire with President Trump on the sidelines of this month’s ASEAN Summit in Philippines, telling the president to “no one marched when I was elected.”
“I was waiting to walk out to be introduced at the East Asia Summit gala dinner, where we all paraded and while we were waiting, Trump in jest patted the person next to him on the shoulder, pointed at me and said, ‘This lady caused a lot of upset in her country’, talking about the election,” Ardern told the New Zealand media outlet Newsroom.
“I said, ‘Well, you know, only maybe 40 per cent’, then he said it again and I said, ‘You know’, laughing, ‘no one marched when I was elected,'” Ardern said.
Ardern became the world’s youngest female head of government in October at the age of 37 after brokering a deal to form a coalition government between her Labor Party and New Zealand First. The agreement was made even though the National Party secured more seats in the country’s House of Representatives.
But Ardern, who was on her first international trip as prime minister, said Trump was not upset by her banter.
“He laughed and it was only afterwards that I reflect that it could have been taken in a very particular way. He did not seem offended,” she said.
Ardern told the local news organization that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered his condolences on the death of her cat Paddles in November. Paddles was dubbed “first cat” after Ardern took office.
“Actually, I found that a really humanizing moment: Regardless of the jobs that we’re all doing and the intensity of the jobs that we’re doing, that he was just a human who recognized something sad in another human’s life, so that was kind of grounding,” she added.
