Kevin Rudd on Donald Trump friction: 'Just roll with the punches'

Kevin Rudd vowed to work with whoever gets elected at the US election during an interview in January. Amid tension with Donald Trump, we revisit what Australia's ambassador to the US had to say.

Kevin Rudd vowed to work with whoever gets elected at the US election during an interview in January. Amid tension with Donald Trump, we revisit what Australia's ambassador to the US had to say.

Kevin Rudd rarely makes a public appearance in the US without referencing his career experience “in the Mesolithic period” – otherwise known as the Middle Stone Age.

The gag is always well received, even if the irony is lost on his audience. Compared to 81-year-old Joe Biden and 77-year-old Donald Trump, the likely candidates in this year’s US election, the 66-year-old may not yet have reached his prime.

But this time last year, as Rudd prepared to re-enter the public service as Australia’s man in Washington DC, he was overheard joking that he was “slowly being demoted”.

“I was prime minister, then foreign minister, and now I’m ambassador,” he said.

Kevin Rudd, at his residence in Washington DC. Picture: Noah Willman

Rudd had hoped to be running the United Nations by now, not back where he started in 1981 as a diplomat in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. So when Anthony Albanese appointed him as the US ambassador, some Labor colleagues wondered if the egotistical leader they remembered was ready to be a team player.

Could an old politician learn new tricks? As it turns out, Rudd is only showing his age by drawing on the decades of knowledge it brings, especially on what he describes as “the unifying thread in my life and career”: navigating a peaceful future with China.

“You can either play around and pretend to be a diplomat, or you can move the dial,” Rudd says.

Kevin Rudd admits he doesn’t miss leading the country.

“I’ll leave it to the historians in 50 years’ time to see whether that contribution is useful or not. But I’m not here for fun – I’m here to help move the dial.”

Living in New York after quitting politics, Rudd established himself as one of the world’s pre-eminent experts on Xi Jinping’s China, completing an Oxford doctorate and running the Asia Society think tank.

That expertise – combined with the cachet of being a former PM – has opened doors aplenty for him as the ambassador tasked with progressing laws to deliver the AUKUS defence pact.

Rudd’s analysis, even in public, is far more transparent and expansive than Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, particularly on the question of preventing conflict over Taiwan.

Ambassador of Australia to the United States Kevin Rudd with his new cat, Possum.

“Because most of these folks know that I have a China background that goes back, for god’s sake, 45 years … people are inevitably going to ask stuff, so you can either say nothing or seek to be substantively engaged,” Rudd says.

“I will be as open and as frank as I can.”

His book, The Avoidable War, now appears on the shelves of many members of Congress, according to Democrat Joe Courtney, the co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus who worked closely with Rudd on the AUKUS legislation.

“He was really the perfect person, especially at the moment we’re in,” Courtney says.

“Man, he worked it. He was everywhere on The Hill.”

Albanese and Biden’s icebreaking meetings with the Chinese President late last year signalled a stabilisation in the relationship, although Rudd says it is a matter of “wait and see” as to whether China now limits its troubling military aggression.

Kevin Rudd and his wife Therese, with US President, Joe Biden.

Discussing such matters over lamingtons in the ambassador’s residence, Rudd appears right at home. His books fill the shelves – the staff were overwhelmed by the scale of his collection – and his cat Qing Qing naps lazily nearby.

Qing Qing and sister Mei Mei, named after the wives of Chinese politicians, were adopted by Rudd and his wife Thérèse Rein in 2015 after they were dumped in a box in Manhattan. Mei Mei died last October, prompting Rudd to rescue another kitten he named Possum, whose youthful exuberance has stirred up family life in the heritage-listed mansion.

Built in 1923, the White Oaks residence is now a DC diplomatic hot spot, with its grass tennis court – a rare sight in the US – attracting influential political figures. Rudd is happy to host, although a knee injury has restricted his participation. He prefers instead to exercise by swimming laps in the backyard pool.

All that being said, Australia will always be home for Rudd.

“Home is Sunshine Beach. I’m a Queenslander,” he says.

“But I’m comfortable in this country … It’s a good country, good people. Got their challenges, but the last time I looked, so do we.”

Asked if he misses leading his country, Rudd is swiftly dismissive: “For god’s sake, no.”

Kevin Rudd with his wife Thérèse Rein outside the National Archives in Washington DC.

Nevertheless, while he is no longer a politician, Rudd acknowledges the wisdom of sending former MPs like himself to serve in DC.

“It does help you navigate all that when there is a great familiarity to it,” he says.

Rudd will need all that experience for his next challenge: the potential return of Trump. In  January, he hosted a gala at the Australian embassy while the votes were counted in the New Hampshire primary, which tightened Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican nomination.

“Forget about New Hampshire,” Rudd told his guests, including senior figures in the current administration such as Mike Donilon, who is regarded as the “Biden whisperer”.

“Sit back, lie back, have a drink. In fact, have several drinks. You might need them.”

Rudd is notoriously no fan of Trump. But he is confident he can deal with whoever wins November’s election, and he says he has not even thought about life beyond Washington.

“When you reach a certain venerable age, you sort of just roll with the punches,” he says.

Originally published as Kevin Rudd on Donald Trump friction: 'Just roll with the punches'