New Zealand
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday played down suggestions US President
Donald Trump confused her with Canadian leader Justin Trudeau’s wife at a
summit in Asia last week.
Trudeau was
supposedly making the introductions as Ardern attended her first major forum
since taking office last month when Trump mixed-up the 37-year-old with the
Canadian leader’s partner Sophie.
It was
reportedly several minutes before he realised his mistake at the East Asia
Summit in Manila.
However,
Ardern said details of the encounter had become muddled in the retelling and
there was actually no confusion on Trump’s part.
She said “a
third party” at the meeting of world leaders — who she refused to name —
incorrectly thought Trump had failed to identify her and she later told the
anecdote to friends back in New Zealand.
A version
leaked publicly that was unflattering to Trump and the rookie prime minister
said she would now have to be more careful when telling tales of her encounters
in the corridors of power.
“It was a
bit of a funny yarn, something I don’t want to cause a diplomatic incident
over… I think I should never have recounted the story,” she told TVNZ.
It comes
after Ardern recalled another Trump anecdote from the Manila summit, when she
was waiting to make her entrance at the event’s gala dinner.
“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,” she
told newsroom.co.nz.
“I said,
‘Well, you know, only maybe 40 percent’, then he said it again and I said, ‘You
know’, laughing, ‘no-one marched when I was elected’.”
Large
protests followed Trump’s election last year but Ardern said the American
leader took her riposte in good humour.
“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.
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