‘Village idiot’: Kevin Rudd’s past comments about Donald Trump come back to bite him

Donald Trump’s most trusted advisers have very bad news for Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd.

Donald Trump’s most trusted advisers have warned that the clock may be ticking on Kevin Rudd’s tenure as Australia’s ambassador to the United States after he described the President-elect as a “village idiot”.

Mr Trump’s former White House press secretary Sean Spicer has told Sky News Australia’s Andrew Bolt overnight that the Australian and UK governments need to “think about how you want that relationship to go, going forward”.

“Donald Trump doesn’t forget these comments,” Mr Spicer told Mr Bolt on Tuesday night.

“It might be smart to sub them out, if you will.”

Mr Spicer said he found it “shocking” that Mr Rudd had made these remarks in the past, given he now expected to act as a diplomat.

“You contrast that with the relationship that former ambassador Joe Hockey had with the Trump administration – he did a phenomenal job on behalf of your country,” he said.

“He established a great relationship, not just with President Trump – I met with him several times.”

Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Picture: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Hourglass warning

Meanwhile Dan Scavino, a longtime Trump staffer, has delivered a brutal takedown on social media after Kevin Rudd’s congratulatory message responding to Mr Trump’s election victory.

Mr Scavino retweeted the message with an hourglass GIF on the social media platform X – suggesting that Mr Rudd’s days in the role might be numbered.

The post is now pinned on Mr Scavino’s account. The adviser was previously named in a lawsuit as assisting “President Trump in operating the @realDonaldTrump account, including by drafting and posting tweets to the account”.

“No one else, besides Trump himself, had access to the most consequential and controversial social media account in the world,’’ the New York Times Magazine reported.

https://t.co/gZgn50AWYipic.twitter.com/ieUTiYW6bG

— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) November 12, 2024

Dan Scavino speaking at a Trump rally in New York. Picture: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images via AFP

‘Village idiot’ fracas

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphatically declared Kevin Rudd is still the right man to lead our diplomatic efforts in the United States this week after revelations he previously called the US President-elect a “village idiot”.

Sky News’ Sharri Markson revealed the footage on Monday night, which shows Mr Rudd speaking in a webinar with Dr Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician and former diplomat.

“The United States, in the past four years, has been run by a village idiot,” Mr Rudd said in the unearthed footage.

“People have seen China continuing to be competent in its national statecraft and the United States increasingly incompetent in its national statecraft under Trump.”

At a press conference in Tasmania, the Prime Minister smacked down calls urging him to sack his former Labor colleague.

When asked whether Mr Rudd was the “right person” to continue as Ambassador to the US, Mr Albanese responded unequivocally: “Yes.”

Anthony Albanese. Picture: David Gray/AFP

Dutton: ‘Read the room’

Liberal leader Peter Dutton is urging the Albanese government to “read the room” after the US election and work “with and not against our most important ally”.

“When we were in government we were able to negotiate with the Trump administration an exemption from tariffs that were being applied at that time,” he said.

“The onus will be on the Prime Minister to negotiate a similar outcome with the Trump administration, and that will be a question for him as to whether or not they are able to craft that.

“But I think it is obvious America has charted a different course now and the government here needs to course correct and make sure they are working with and not against our most important ally.

“The Prime Minister says that we live in the most precarious period since the Second World War, but we need to have a very strong and trusted relationship with our Five Eyes partners, including the United States.”

Peter Dutton. Picture: Linda Higginson/NewsWire

Albanese: Trump ‘scares the s*** out of me’

Last week it was revealed that Mr Albanese, who appointed Mr Rudd to the Washington post, had previously been caught on tape saying that Mr Trump’s presidency “scared the s*** out of” him.

“We have an alliance with the US, we’ve got to deal with him, but that doesn’t mean that you’re uncritical about it,” Mr Albanese said in 2017.

“He scares the s*** out of me, and I think it’s of some concern that the leader of the free world thinks that you can conduct politics through 140 characters on Twitter overnight.”

Mr Trump was previously asked about Mr Rudd’s comments during a British TV interview in March, suggesting that the former Australian prime minister turned diplomat was “not the brightest bulb” and “nasty”.

Lara Trump’s warning

In an interview with Sky News Australia days before the election, the President-elect’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who also serves as the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, suggested it was “hard” to keep someone in a diplomatic position who’d said “such nasty things about a person”.

“I do think it would be nice to have a person who appreciates all that Donald Trump has gone through to want to serve our country at this moment,” she said.