As reports circulate that Donald Trump may have been confused about Ardern’s identity, she says she won’t share backstage stories again

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has expressed regret over gossiping about a meeting with Donald Trump after it was reported the US president may have mistaken her for Justin Trudeau’s wife.

Ardern was visibly uncomfortable when asked about reports that she had revealed details of the encounter at the East Asia summit in Vietnam last week to a friend who later went public.

The friend – comedian Tom Sainsbury – revealed in a radio interview that Ardern had told her Trump was “not as orange in real life” and that he had been confused about her identity.

Play Video 2:31 Who is Jacinda Ardern? – video explainer

Sainsbury said: “[Ardern] said that Donald Trump was confused for a good amount of time in thinking that she was Justin Trudeau’s wife.”

Ardern, when questioned about this, said she did not want to turn the issue into a “diplomatic incident”, or discuss everything that occurred behind the scenes.

But the prime minister, whose appearance at the high-profile summit was her first major international test since being elected, stressed that when she was formally introduced to Trump he seemed to know who she was.

“Second-hand someone observed that they thought that it happened, but in all my interaction, certainly President Trump didn’t seem to have confused me when I interacted with him. But someone else observed this,” Ardern said, explaining the incident.

Ardern would not reveal who the person was who observed the alleged case of mistaken identity, but said it was not someone in her team, nor was it a New Zealander.

Ardern said she had told the “full story” of the incident to two people in New Zealand, but would not budge when asked to share the full story with TVNZ host Jack Tame, who questioned her for six minutes on the topic.

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Ardern then said she would not make the same mistake of sharing a backstage “yarn” again – as Chinese whispers had brought the story to the attention of the media, which was not her intention.

“I’m in a circle, I am with someone else, I did not hear the full conversation, they observed what they believe to be mistaken identity, I didn’t pick that up. I then had an interaction that suggested he [Donald Trump] knew who I was, that was at the point where I was properly introduced which probably cleared it up.” Ardern said.

Tame continued pressing Ardern on whether she had told the full truth regarding the incident, or whether she had misled New Zealanders. Ardern responded: “Jack, at this point I don’t want to give away every single element of conversation I have with another world leader, because I accept that things happen behind the scenes, that I’m not always going to give the full details around.

“Tom’s a mate of mine. I shared a story with him, he shared it with someone else, I can see how that then spirals ... it is a trifling matter.

“It was a bit of a funny yarn, something that I don’t want to cause a diplomatic incident over.

“I think I should never have recounted the story.” Ardern said.



This is not the first time Ardern has revealed unusually sensitive information about her dealings with the US president. In a wide-ranging interview with Newsroom last week, Ardern described how she joked with Donald Trump when they first met, telling the US president: “No one marched when I was elected.”

She said the president didn’t seem to take offence, but only realised later that the remark could have backfired.