Australia talked about! In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB Information, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was requested about how he would method diplomacy throughout a second time period as president, together with with us: “Issues have modified in Australia, we’ve received a Labor authorities,” Farage stated. “The earlier ambassador Joe Hockey, I believe was fairly an excellent good friend of yours … Now they’ve appointed Kevin Rudd, former Labor MP. He’s stated probably the most horrible issues. You had been a ‘damaging president’, a ‘traitor to the West’”
“He gained’t be there lengthy if that’s the case,” Trump responded. “I don’t know a lot about him. I heard he was a bit of bit nasty. I hear he’s not the brightest bulb, however I don’t know a lot about him. If he’s in any respect hostile, he is not going to be there lengthy.”
It’s a traditional Trump insult: robust discuss supplemented with a infantile burn attributed to an imagined grapevine (“many are saying …”) and nearly definitely improvised to cowl the actual fact he has no thought who Rudd is.
First, let’s marvel at Trump and Farage occurring, purely accidentally, upon two of the descriptions almost definitely to get below Rudd’s pores and skin: as wonkish a technocrat to ever occupy the prime minister’s workplace reimagined as a “former Labor MP”, and never all that vivid an MP at that.
After all Trump has by no means let sketchy preparation get in the way in which of providing his opinion on something, and Australian PMs aren’t any completely different.
Malcolm Turnbull: ‘You’re worse than I’m’
When Trump first grew to become president, it was shortly made clear how the connection between our then PM, the urbane, faintly grandiose Malcolm Turnbull, and the meandering and incurably vulgar new commander-in-chief would play out, with information hitting of a brutal first name between the pair in February 2017. The now notorious dialog descended right into a heated disagreement concerning the Trump administration honouring an Obama period dedication to resettle a cohort of asylum seekers imprisoned by successive Australian governments on Manus and Nauru.
Whereas there are durations of apparent fury from Trump concerning the state of affairs, there’s additionally grudging admiration when he’s introduced with the total image of Australia’s border safety regime: “That’s a good suggestion. We must always try this too. You’re worse than I’m.”
As ever, Trump saved probably the most memorable description for himself (“I’m the world’s best particular person that doesn’t wish to let folks into the nation”) and simply to point out there was no laborious emotions, despatched out his then press secretary Sean Spicer, who repeatedly referred to Turnbull as “Trumble” and “Trunbull”.
Scott Morrison: ‘An ideal victory’
Scott Morrison had a a lot better time of it than his predecessor — “Congratulations to Scott on a GREAT WIN!” Trump tweeted after Morrison’s miracle win in 2019, with the PM handled to an opulent state dinner in Washington later that 12 months. As ever, the reward was as a lot for himself as for Morrison: “He didn’t shock me however he shocked lots of different folks. See, I knew him. So I stated he’s going to do very effectively and he did,” Trump stated in Osaka forward of the G20 summit in June 2019. Additionally pretty sometimes, Trump’s erratic mood meant it wasn’t all plain crusing — in accordance with a 2020 scoop from legendary US journalist Carl Bernstein, Morrison was among the many many world leaders who Trump “frequently bullied and demeaned”.
Morrison, for his half, added “condemning the incitement of an rebel” to the checklist of issues that weren’t his job.
