New Zealand’s female prime minister ‘extremely angry’ at Trump comparisons

New Zealand’s prime minister said she’s “infuriated” at the notion that her immigration policies are compared to those of President Trump.

In an interview with NBC’s “Today” released on Tuesday, Jacinda Ardern said the suggestion that she was similar to Trump on immigration “infuriated” her.

“We are a nation built on immigration — I’m only a third-generation New Zealander,” she said. “The suggestion in any way that New Zealand wasn’t an open, outward facing country — the suggestion that I was leading something counter to that value — makes me extremely angry.”

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Ardern added that her party is working to double their refugee quota and that she is “absolutely not” building a wall like her American counterpart.

Ardern was responding to a September 2017 Twitter post by The Wall Street Journal that she was the equivalent to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “except she’s more like Trump on immigration.”

Meet New Zealand’s Justin Trudeau—except she’s more like Trump on immigrationhttps://t.co/HXs3FfmrWe

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 5, 2017

The Washington Post pointed out the original article shared with the comment was written before Ardern was elected and did not actually mention Trump.

Ardern’s center-left Labour Party teamed up with the populist right-wing party New Zealand First, similar to if “Bernie Sanders teamed up with Ted Cruz,” NBC’s Cynthia McFadden said.

Trump is a third-generation American on his father’s side and a second-generation American on his mother’s. 

Ardern famously mocked Trump in November shortly after her election after Trump made a comment about how she had “upset a lot of people.”

The newly elected Ardern responded that “no one had marched over my election to office.”

The 37-year-old pregnant prime minister is the youngest world leader of any nation and will be only the second elected official to give birth while in office.

Ardern is expecting her first child in June with her partner, Clarke Gayford.

Ardern told “Today” that Gayford will be a stay-at-home father following her six-week maternity leave. 

“I look forward to the day where there won’t be news stories about that because it won’t be nearly as unusual but for now I accept that that’s just the way it is,” Ardern said.