In an interview with the NBC TV channel, Ardern recalled the story by the Wall Street Journal, headlined “Meet New Zealand’s Justin Trudeau – except she’s more like Trump on immigration,” and said that she was “infuriated” by that kind of a parallel.
“That infuriated me, it infuriated me. We are a party who were at that time campaigning to double our refugee quota. We are a nation built on immigration. I am only a third-generation New Zealander. The suggestion in any way that New Zealand wasn’t an open, outward-facing country – the suggestion that I was leading something that was counter to that value – made me extremely angry,” she said.
Meet New Zealand's Justin Trudeau—except she's more like Trump on immigrationhttps://t.co/HXs3FfmrWe
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) 5 сентября 2017 г.
Social media users’ opinions divided on that account: while some continued drawing parallels between Ardern and Trump, having agreed with the media outlet’s scandalous headline…
she did campaign on reducing immigrants and she is aligned with NZ First who their main campaign is kicking out immigrants. so sorry but you are NZ Trump. pic.twitter.com/LDH0ejwzNt
— Tom Sadooni (@SadooniNZ) 18 апреля 2018 г.
Except she does have a racist immigration policy, which is kinda like Trump
— James (@JamesHalcrow) 6 сентября 2017 г.
And like Trump, vague on policy detail — especially on tax.
— Jim-Bob Smith (@Bobtobob) 5 сентября 2017 г.
…others defended the prime minister, saying that she was nothing like Trump:
BTW I don't think she's anything like Trump on immigration. This is a bad comparison.
— Moon_Di (@zhudigrandmoon) 5 сентября 2017 г.
…She's not campaigning on building a wall, deporting anyone, illegal checks of immigration status. Not even gonna click your clickbait.
— Cate Owen (@CateOwen) 5 сентября 2017 г.
The headline should read: @WSJ just ruined its own credibility.
— Bruce Hudson (@ganttnz) 6 сентября 2017 г.
Jacinda Adern is as similar in policies to Donald Trump as Bernie Sanders!
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister and leader of the Labor Party, has been an advocate for a lower rate of immigration, suggesting shrinking net migrant arrivals by up to 30,000 annually, at the same time, she, however, has been pressing for increasing the intake of refugees.
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Ardern’s views on immigration have triggered some mainstream media to draw parallels between her and US President Donald Trump, who is well known for his travel ban on a number of Muslim-majority countries and his promise to build a “big, beautiful” wall along the US border with Mexico in order to reduce the number of illegal migrants.