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New Zealand's Prime Minister 'Infuriated' by Comparison to Trump Over Migration

© AP Photo / Charles Platiau/Pool PhotoNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gestures as she speaks during a media conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, at the at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, April 16, 2018
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gestures as she speaks during a media conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, at the at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, April 16, 2018 - Sputnik International
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Not only did the Wall Street Journal’s analogy between New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s policies and those of US President Donald Trump anger her, it also sowed division among social media users.

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.

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…

…others defended the prime minister, saying that she was nothing like Trump:

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.

READ MORE: Trump Says WTO, TPP Not Serving US Interests, Bilateral Deals More Profitable

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.

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