Peter Dutton from Texas is getting confused with Australia’s wannabe PM

THE Texan mistaken for the bloke who wants to be PM has achieved a feat his namesake couldn’t, but his family is worried about the attention.

A 30-YEAR-OLD popcorn entrepreneur from America called Peter Dutton, who was confused online for the Australian prime ministerial hopeful of the same name, has embraced the unexpected fame with his “new found Aussie family”.

But he revealed an awkward call with his mother who thought he was in trouble when the media maelstrom hit.

There are some big differences between the two Duttons. For a start the Texan Mr Dutton is black and about 18 years younger. He can also name an AC/DC song, something his Australian namesake this week failed to do.

I wish the people of Australia would look at my profile and realize I’m a 30 yr old black man before sending me tweets and DMs. https://t.co/vzTF8JeMlZ

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton5) August 23, 2018

“This has been a wonderful experience,” Mr Dutton said.

The Austin resident has described how he first twigged something odd was happening a few days ago.

“I experienced an influx of tweets and some were kind of harsh so I tried to figure out what was going on.”

Eventually he worked out he had the identical name as the former home affairs minister.

He tweets under the handle (@PeterDutton5) while the PM contender is (@PeterDutton_MP).

The US Dutton tweeted: “I wish the people of Australia would look at my profile and realise I’m a 30 yr old black man before sending me tweets and DMs.” That only encouraged more people to get in touch.

This man is Peter Dutton, just not Australia's Peter Dutton.

Meet Peter Dutton, a 30-year-old popcorn entrepreneur from Texas who’s been getting swamped with Australian tweets over the #LibSpill! pic.twitter.com/qKdIlOmyUF

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) August 23, 2018

“When it first happened my wife was trying to get sleep she was like ‘why are you still up scrambling around’ and I was like ‘you have no idea, the tweets just won’t stop’,” he told Channel 7’s Sunrise this morning.

“My mother called me at 3am our time and she was like ‘what’s going on, I got a call from Australia looking for you?’ She doesn’t have Twitter so I had to update her and she was like ‘I cannot believe this but if it were happen to someone it would happen to you’.

“I decided to embrace it and have some fun with my new found Aussie family.”

He said now they knew what was going on, his family “found it hilarious”.

Mr Dutton has never visited Australia and he said he knew little about the country, aside from it was beautiful and had koalas.

“I have never been to Australia’s but it’s the top of my list now,” he said.

And he does like the music.

“AC/DC gets me through my morning runs,” he said, nominating Thunderstruck as his favourite of their back catalogue.

The Australian Mr Dutton couldn’t name any AC/DC’s songs when asked on Triple M on Wednesday, a feat only matched by Malcolm Turnbull, who tripped up when asked the same question in a past interview.

America’s Mr Dutton said he had been given the name “the people’s PM of Australia” online.

“I’m keeping the name now, people have embraced me,” he said.

😂😂 sign me up! https://t.co/IP0ltFLhz3

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton5) August 23, 2018

Pretty sure my last tweet has made me the leading candidate for PM of Australia.

USA! It’s been real, mate. ✌🏾

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton5) August 23, 2018

The Texan is not the first Yank to find themselves unceremoniously yanked into Mr Dutton’s political orbit.

A Peter Dutton from New York copped so much misdirected abuse on social media that his namesake, while Immigration Minister, apologised and offered to buy him a drink.

Mr Dutton, the New Yorker, not the Texan or Queenslander, started getting abusive tweets several years ago, but wasn’t sure why.

“Depends on the week. Some weeks none. Some days dozens. I never know when a storm is going to hit,” Mr Dutton told news.com.au in 2016.

I've been to Australia once, in 1998, and nothing that's happened there since is my fault. https://t.co/Sz1XKnHC4E

— International House of Peter (@peterdutton) May 16, 2017

His Twitter handle (@peterdutton) is even easier to get confused for Australia’s Mr Dutton.

But the New Yorker seems to have embraced the situation, with his cover photo of Bart mooning Australia in The Simpsons episode set Down Under and featuring terrible accents.

“It’s been years since the first tweets, I guess while he was just a regular MP. Of course, I didn’t know that at first, but someone soon explained,” Mr Dutton said.

“The Australian Peter Dutton contacted me early on and apologised for the trouble. He was nice about it and I have no beef with him.”

Originally published as Peter Dutton from Texas is getting confused with Australia’s wannabe PM