Rudd to stay in US if Trump wins, despite former president’s ‘nasty’ comment

The Albanese government has rallied behind Australia’s ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd after a vicious Donald Trump attack triggered concerns about the future of Australia’s relationship with its most important security partner.

Trump’s broadside against Rudd ignited a partisan brawl in Canberra, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accusing the opposition of undermining Australian diplomacy by questioning whether Rudd should remain in the crucial position.

Donald Trump speaking with Nigel Farage.Credit: GB News

Presented with Rudd’s critical past comments in an interview with former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage on Britain’s right-leaning GB News, Trump replied: “He won’t be there long if that’s the case.

“I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he’s not the brightest bulb. But I don’t know much about him. But if, if he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.”

Before being appointed as ambassador, Rudd described Trump as “nuts”, a “traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history”.

As well as being the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump is leading US President Joe Biden in the RealClearPolitics polling average and is the favourite in the betting markets to be re-elected to the White House in November.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is embraced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the unveiling of his official portrait last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Asked about Trump’s comments, Foreign Minister Penny Wong insisted on Wednesday that Australia would keep Rudd as ambassador.

“Even [Opposition Leader Peter] Dutton has expressed confidence in Mr Rudd, Mr Rudd is a very effective ambassador. He’s recognised as doing – across this parliament – an excellent job in advancing Australia’s interests in the United States,” Wong said.

“I point you in particular to the phenomenal amount of work being done on AUKUS in the period that he has been ambassador.

“He has been active in engaging with members of Congress on both sides of politics and he is a former prime minister, former foreign minister, is experienced … [which] means he will be able to work closely with whoever is elected by the American people as the United States’ president.”

Albanese used question time to point to recent comments by Dutton in which he said Rudd had represented his country well and that he would work closely with him if elected prime minister.

“The relationship with the United States is very important. It should be beyond the sort of cheap politics that we saw earlier today,” Albanese said, referring to questions about Rudd’s future in Washington.

Declaring that a possible future US president had made “very serious comments” about Australia’s top diplomat in Washington, Dutton said: “Mr Rudd needs to repair the relationship. That’s the point we were making. And we won’t be hectored to or intimidated by these bully boys over here.”

Praising Rudd for doing a good job in Washington, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said: “Australia’s ambassador for Australia needs to be able to deliver for Australia regardless of who is in the White House...Australia’s interests are bigger than any individual and must be the ultimate priority in any future assessments that are made.”

John Blaxland, professor of international security and intelligence studies at the Australian National University, said he was “pretty sanguine” about Australia’s relationship with the US under Trump.

Blaxland said Rudd had been the “quintessential diplomat” since his appointment and had put in considerable effort to build ties with both Republicans and Democrats in Washington.

Sam Roggeveen, director of the international security program at the Lowy Institute, described Australia as a “kangaroo caught in the headlights” when it comes to a Trump return to office.

“We are fretting about a second Trump presidency but don’t seem to be doing much about it,” he said.

Donald Trump’s rebuke of Kevin Rudd comes at a sensitive time in the relationship between Australia and the US.Credit: AP

Trump’s remarks about Rudd come less than a year after the former Labor leader officially began his term as Australia’s 23rd ambassador to the US.

His appointment marked the first time a former Australian PM had taken the post, in a move that boosted Canberra’s diplomatic clout in Washington.

“He’s been really aggressive – in a good way – in terms of reaching up to the Hill,” Democrat congressman Joe Courtney told this masthead after meeting Rudd for the first time last year, where they discussed the AUKUS submarine pact and his “clear-eyed view of the challenge in the Indo-Pacific”.

In response to Trump’s comments today, Courtney took to social media to note that Rudd was “respected & admired by legislators on both sides of the aisle – a rare feat in DC” and that the US-Australia alliance was stronger due to his work in helping to create a bipartisan consensus on the AUKUS submarine deal.

But Rudd – who is the former head of the Asia Society and one of the world’s top experts on China – was always going to face a balancing act in the job, given his past public comments.

While in his post, Rudd is constrained from commenting on presidential candidates.

Asked last year if his past criticism of Trump would affect Australia’s relationship with the US, he did not answer directly but replied: “I’ve been in this town on and off for the last 30 years. I have bucket loads of Republican friends and bucket loads of Democrat friends … so I’m pretty confident those relationships have not only continued but will be sustained and strengthened.”

While the home nation of an ambassador appoints them to the role rather than the government of the country they serve in, Trump’s rebuke comes at a sensitive time in the relationship between Australia and the US.

Last week, the US announced it would cut a Virginia-class submarine from its latest budget in a move that critics fear could send a troubling signal to Canberra about Washington’s commitment to the AUKUS military pact.

Trump, if elected, could technically seek to remove Rudd’s diplomatic accreditation, but this would be an unprecedented step in the history of US-Australia relations and would inevitably damage the alliance between the two countries.

“Trump is making it clear that, if elected, he will end Australia’s capacity to independently determine our Ambassador to the US,” former Labor senator Doug Cameron, a critic of AUKUS, wrote on X.

Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Washington last October.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“It’s a possibility that Trump, despite his obnoxious authoritarian personality, could be elected. So much for the myth of independence within AUKUS!”

Asked about the comments on Sky News, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she did not wish to speculate “on what might transpire” but noted: “I do want to say this, Kevin Rudd is our ambassador, so we want him to do well because he represents Australia’s national interests in the US.”

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