PM to Trump: Send love to Muslims

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told US President Donald Trump the best help he could provide in the wake of the Christchurch attack would be sympathy and love for Muslim communities.

Ardern spoke to Trump on the phone yesterday morning ahead of flying to Christchurch.

She said Trump passed on his condolences, and asked if there was any help the United States could provide.

‘‘He asked what offer of support the United States could provide. My message was: ‘Sympathy and love for all Muslim communities,’’’ Ardern said.

Trump has in the past suggested that mosques and Muslims should be tracked, Muslims banned from the United States, and claimed that ‘‘Islam hates us’’.

Asked how he received the message, Ardern said he ‘‘acknowledged that and agreed.’’

‘‘He asked what he could do and I simply conveyed, I think, the sentiment that exists here in New Zealand,’’ Ardern said.

Trump was asked yesterday whether he thought that white supremacy was ‘‘a serious growing problem’’.

He replied: ‘‘I don’t really. I think it’s people.’’

Asked if she agreed, Ardern replied swiftly: ‘‘No’’.

Trump tweeted a link to farright website Breitbart early in the aftermath of the shooting. That tweet has since been deleted.

Ardern was asked several times whether she thought intelligence agencies had been too focused on Islamic terror and not white supremacy.

She said agencies had been monitoring extremism from all directions and reiterated that the three arrested people were not on any terror watchlists and had no criminal records.

Police would help with repatriation of any bodies in a way consistent with Muslim beliefs, Ardern said.

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Asked if she agreed with the president, Ardern replied swiftly: ‘‘No’’.