International incident

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] 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.

  

Expect a nasty tweet about Ms Ardern shortly.

“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.

Whether it was or not.

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.

[...]

The friend [with whom she sared the story] – 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.

[...]

“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.

A lesson in leadership the less orange one will never learn.

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.

He probably didn't get it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.