I have long held A Newspaper in such regard that I refuse to pay for its premium content. The few articles worth reading amongst endless pieces of mundane dross means the economics just don’t stack up. Content about Ardern is freely available as she doesn’t rate premium content in this newspaper, which is quite understandable. With President Trump, it also appears that she doesn’t rate premium time, which is also quite understandable. Compared to the treatment Scott Morrison has just received, our little lady rated a twenty-five-minute chit chat.
According to the NZ Herald Trump asked for the meeting because he was particularly interested in meeting Ardern. I wonder where their source for that startling fact came from? The Washington Post maybe, or the New York Times. Evidently Ardern emerged from the meeting with warm smiles and high praise for Trump. Hypocrite. Or maybe she thought she was in Canada talking to Justin Trudeau.
“President Trump views New Zealand very warmly, views the relationship very warmly and holds New Zealand in very high regard,” she told reporters. Yes, New Zealand, not you sweetie.
“He was interested in everything from tourism to what occurred in Christchurch. We even had a conversation about our gun buyback and the process we had gone through there.” Amazingly, Trump asked her about this unprompted. Are we to assume he normally has someone in attendance telling him what questions to ask? I bet she didn’t let on it’s been a flop.
A free trade deal was also discussed which, according to Jacinda, he’s very enthusiastic about. I wonder if it’s even slightly occurred to her that, being the dealer and trader he is, he might just want a teensy weensy bit in return. Or more likely quite a lot in areas she won’t be happy with like agreements in foreign affairs and defence. I watched a video of her talking to the media after the meeting and as usual, she was full of earnest enunciation and fervent facial contortions.
She delivered the keynote address on climate change in which she stressed that no countries, even non-believers, should cop-out. In her subsequent meeting with Trump then, she should have asked him why the US had not signed up for the Paris Accord. In her speech, she reeled off a whole list of things her Government had announced in the area of climate change and all in just two years. The audience would not have been nearly so impressed had they realised that in reality very little has been implemented.
She talked about March 15 but again she failed to ask Trump why he had not signed up for the Christchurch Call. Here we have a Prime Minister who avoids the hard questions. A Prime Minister who can’t deliver on the job she’s been given. Actions speak louder than words, but this will never happen while we are burdened with a flaky Prime Minister whose most obvious traits appear to be obfuscation domestically and an inability to give New Zealand the presence it deserves on the world stage.
