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New Zealand Prime Minister Ridicules Trump’s ‘Patently Wrong’ Criticism of COVID-19 Response

Trump told a rally New Zealand was in the grip of a “terrible” surge in cases Monday—when it had logged just nine infections.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has dismissed President Donald Trump’s remarks on her country’s coronavirus cases as “patently wrong.” On Monday night, Trump told a crowd in Minnesota: “Big surge in New Zealand, you know it’s terrible, we don’t want that, but this is an invisible enemy that should never have been let to come to Europe and the rest of the world by China.” On Monday, New Zealand recorded just nine new cases—while the U.S. figure was just under 42,000. Ardern told reporters on Tuesday: “I think anyone who’s following COVID and its transmission globally will quite easily see that New Zealand’s nine cases in a day does not compare to the United States’ tens of thousands, and in fact does not compare to most countries in the world.” Addressing Trump’s comment, she said: “Obviously, it’s patently wrong.” In June, New Zealand declared it had eliminated the virus, and went 102 days without infections.