PM reveals details of ‘warm’ call with Donald Trump
Anthony Albanese has revealed some of what he spoke to Donald Trump about in their “warm” phone call.
Super Bowl, NRL and golf were among the big topics covered in Anthony Albanese’s “warm” phone call with Donald Trump, the Prime Minister has revealed.
Mr Albanese’s chemistry with the US President has been under a spotlight since Mr Trump’s historic second White House win last year.
Scrutiny has only intensified after the Trump administration slapped brutal blanket tariffs on all steel and aluminium “without exemptions or exceptions” shortly after the two leaders spoke.
But Mr Albanese has maintained he had a good rapport with Mr Trump and on Wednesday dropped more details on their conversation.
“We talked about the Super Bowl and Jordan Mailata being the first Australian to win a Super Bowl championship,” he told Melbourne radio station Gold FM.
“I did drop into the conversation that he was a South Sydney junior and that I was on the board.”
Mr Mailata played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs’ under-20s team before crossing the Pacific to play for Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles won Super Bow LIX earlier this month.
“He’s (Trump) familiar, of course, with Russell Crowe and James Packer, who are two of the people who have an ownership stake in Souths,” Mr Albanese said.
“We did have a chat about golf. I told him I’d appointed Greg Norman to the board of the Brisbane Olympic Games and that Greg was going to serve Australia well as a way of him putting things back to the country.
“But we talked, of course, about our common interests in AUKUS, in our economic relationship.
“It was a really warm conversation over about 40 minutes and it was positive. And that’s how you build relations, is by engaging.”
Mr Albanese has been facing calls from the opposition to fly over to meet Mr Trump face-to-face to secure an Australian exemption from the levies.
But Mr Albanese has down played the urgency, pointing to high-level in-person meetings between government ministers and their new US counterparts.
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