What about bending Trump's ear, he intoned, on the nuclear-free moment of her generation, climate change, or her pet project, the Christchurch Call to clean up the internet?
She was probably diplomatically wise not to raise global warming, which would probably have made Trump hot under the collar given his first act as President was to pull out of the Paris Accord.
But given Trump presides over the host country to all the internet giants, that should have been on the agenda. Without the United States on board, it does weaken the resolve.
And even with another 31 countries lending support to it, which of course any sensible country should do, it's all about resolve rather than regulation. Ardern, when she met with the 2IC at Facebook billionaire Sheryl Sandberg made it easy for her, responding to the media in her presence that it'd be nigh on impossible to regulate to hold platforms to account.
In an industry where the balance sheet bottom line is eye watering, dictating decisions, there's little wonder why Sandberg and Ardern warmly embraced while the PM had to make do with a Trump thumbs up.
Still several hours after the Ardern meeting, Trump used his other digits on his cellphone to retweet a NZ Herald story quoting her telling us "President Trump views New Zealand very warmly, views the relationship very warmly and holds New Zealand in very high regard."
He tweeted "True, a wonderful meeting." No fake news here, although time will tell just how wonderful and sincere it really was.
