{"id":72048,"date":"2025-05-31T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T05:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ng-interactive\/2025\/may\/31\/jacinda-ardern-kind-leadership-public-rage-life-trump-america"},"modified":"2025-05-31T14:00:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T05:00:38","slug":"empathy-is-a-kind-of-strength-jacinda-ardern-on-kind-leadership-public-rage-and-life-in-trumps-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=72048","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Empathy is a kind of strength\u2019: Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump\u2019s America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Young, progressive and relatable, the former prime minister of New Zealand tried to do politics differently. But six years into power, she dramatically resigned. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian\u2019s editor-in-chief, she explains why<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global\/2025\/may\/31\/queen-elizabeth-ii-had-raised-children-in-the-public-eye-i-asked-if-she-had-any-advice-for-me-an-exclusive-extract-from-jacinda-arderns-memoir\">Read an exclusive extract from Ardern\u2019s memoir<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 2022, a few months before she quit as prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern was standing at the sink in the toilets in Auckland airport, washing her hands, when a woman came up to her and leaned in. She was so close that Ardern could feel the heat from her skin. \u201cI just wanted to say thank you,\u201d the woman said. \u201cThanks for ruining the country.\u201d She turned and left, leaving Ardern \u201cstanding there as if I were a high-schooler who\u2019d just been razed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The incident was deeply shocking. Ardern had been re-elected in a historic landslide two years before. She enjoyed conversation and debate; she liked being the kind of leader who wasn\u2019t sealed off from the rest of the population. But this, says Ardern, \u201cfelt like something new. It was the tenor of the woman\u2019s voice, the way she\u2019d stood so close, the way her seething, nonspecific rage felt not only unpredictable but incongruous to the situation \u2026 What was happening?\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ng-interactive\/2025\/may\/31\/jacinda-ardern-kind-leadership-public-rage-life-trump-america\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Young, progressive and relatable, the former prime minister of New Zealand tried to do politics differently. But six years into power, she dramatically resigned. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian\u2019s editor-in-chief, she explains why\u2022 Read an e&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4777,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,268,56,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-jacinda-ardern","category-new-zealand","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4777"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72049,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72048\/revisions\/72049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}