The Australian Government seems to go from panic mode to denial mode regarding Mr Donald Trump winning the recent United States elections. The current Australian Ambassador to the United States, Mr Kevin Rudd has a significant history of negative commentary about Mr Donald Trump, both during and since his first Presidency. Most recently, his team have scrubbed all of his social media accounts to try and hide all of the negative words and videos of Mr Kevin Rudd discussing Mr Donald Trump. (News.com.au, 2024, Ambassador Kevin Rudd deletes social media posts critical of Donald Trump | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site)
Many commentators, including Mr Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara have suggested that Mr Kevin Rudd may need to go in order to ensure Australia has the best relationship with the United States, once Mr Donald Trump is president again next year. (AFR, 2024, US election 2024: Ambassador Kevin Rudd could lose his job if Donald Trump wins the election (afr.com))
Even the current Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Anthony Albanese seems to be in denial as he has no plans to meet Mr Donald Trump when he visits the United States for the G20 meetings next week. (The Nightly, 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismisses call to divert to Florida and seek out Donald Trump | The Nightly)
This is despite Mr Anthony Albanese also having a history of negative comments about Mr Donald Trump. (ABC, 2024, Trump's victory means old tweets and statements are coming back to haunt Anthony Albanese - ABC News)
Despite all of these news articles, the Australian Government has refused calls to ask Mr Kevin Rudd to stand down or to retract his comments. Even the Prime Minister has faced calls to resign over his history of negative comments regarding the former and soon to be President again Donald Trump.
The Australian Foreign Minister Ms Penny Wong is also not unscathed with her comments also resurfacing about her negative thoughts regarding Mr Donald Trump. (Lowy Institute, 2024, Penny Wong is quizzed about Trump, again, again and again | Lowy Institute) She continues however, to tell the media that Australia will work with the United States and her allies.
It will be interesting to see what happens over the coming months as Australia faces its own elections in 2025, where perhaps all of these positions, from Prime Minister, to Foreign Minister and even the Australian Ambassador to the US, may well be replaced by the results of the election.
But, as is shown in the current media articles, Mr Donald Trump does not forget and has already described the Australian Ambassador to the USA, Mr Kevin Rudd, as not the smartest bulb and he is a little bit nasty. (ABC, 2024, Former US president Donald Trump insults ambassador Kevin Rudd, says 'he won't be there long' if he's 'hostile' - ABC News)
The Australian Government, run by the Labor Party currently, seems to be caught off guard by Mr Donald Trump being re-elected and is still unsure of how to approach it, given they have long been close supporters of the Democrats. Time will tell, but perhaps politics is shifting in Australia as well away from the Left policies of the last few years - gender equality, transgender policies, green policies etc. Perhaps like Europe and now the USA. Australia may shift a little more to the right and focus on economic development, inflation, cost of living, immigration reductions and law and order.
What do you think?
