Polls conducted in 2017 by the Lowy Institute in Sydney found a sharp decline in Australians’ trust in the United States after the election of Donald Trump, but continued support for the alliance and a slight uptick in the number of Australians who said they had a positive impression of the Americans they had actually met.
My theory on this discrepancy was that Australians can differentiate between the alliance and the presidency – and that Americans travelling to Australia at the time must have been polite if not apologetic for what our election had just done to the world. Four years later we have finally been saved from Trumpism and will revert to the norm … or will we?
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Michael Jonathan Green is professor and chief executive officer at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He served on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House from 2001 to 2005.
