‘Conga line of sycophants’: Turnbull decries Australia’s timid approach to ‘bully’ Trump

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has redoubled his attacks on Donald Trump as a global threat to security after the US president abused him on social media platform Truth Social as “weak and ineffectual”.

Turnbull said Australia could not “continue this bipartisan gaslighting that is going on at the moment”, referring to the impact Trump is having on the world.

Then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and US President Donald Trump meet in Washington in 2018.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“If you look to our political leaders, [they say] there’s nothing wrong with AUKUS, everything’s fine, nothing’s changed,” he said on the ABC’s 7.30 program after an earlier interview on Bloomberg TV in which he said Trump’s approach to tariffs played into China’s hands.

Denying he was causing trouble as Trump prepares to decide whether to exempt Australia from steel and aluminium tariffs at the end of the week, Turnbull said the government could not afford to placate the president.

“The reality is, if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs, or in the playground, you just get more bullying,” Turnbull said. “And unfortunately, we are now seeing somebody that is utterly unconstrained, and if the advice is to go and suck up to him, where does that get you?”

In a swipe at the government echoing former Labor leader Mark Latham’s infamous description of the Howard-era Coalition as a “conga line of suckholes” for joining the US in Iraq, Turnbull asked: “Are we just going to become just a conga line of sycophants creeping through the White House? Paying homage to this guy and telling him he’s a genius. It’s ludicrous.”

Trump was scathing of Turnbull on Truth Social, a social media platform owned by the president, on Sunday evening (Monday AEDT).

“Malcolm Turnbull, the former prime minister of Australia who was always leading that wonderful country from ‘behind’, never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so,” Trump wrote.

“I always thought he was a weak and ineffective leader and, obviously, Australian’s [sic] agreed with me.”

Turnbull had just appeared on Bloomberg television in the US, speaking about the planned tariffs and arguing Trump was playing into China’s hands.

Credit: Matt Golding

In his Bloomberg appearance, Turnbull said he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping to take “massive advantage” of Trump’s presidency.

“Where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent. Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful,” Turnbull said.

“And what that will do is build trust with countries, and there will be many countries looking at China on one hand, Trump on the other, [that] will prefer China.”

Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff threats were bad for business and could drive the US into recession, Turnbull added.

“Trump seems to have a view that America can prosper at the expense of everyone else, but that’s not going to work,” he said.

Turnbull also said Trump “wasn’t really prepared” to govern in his first term because he didn’t expect to win the 2016 election but was much more determined now and was surrounded by loyalists who would implement his agenda.

Asked to respond to Trump’s social media barb, Turnbull said: “I’m a quivering leaf.”

Trump’s attack came just hours after Turnbull sent out invitations for an all-day conference he is organising at the National Press Club in Canberra on March 31 to rethink the future of the US-Australia alliance and the AUKUS pact in the age of Trump.

“With the arrival of Trump mark II, we have seen him effectively switch sides in the war in Ukraine and inflict extraordinary economic damage on allies like Canada, but both sides of politics are trying to pretend that nothing has happened,” Turnbull said.

US President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One as he returns to Washington from Florida.Credit: AP

“It’s long overdue for Australia to have a proper conversation about our place in the world and how we defend ourselves. It’s clear we cannot rely on the United States.”

Turnbull said he had invited about 100 “leading defence and foreign policy thinkers” to the on-the-record event, and that a broad spectrum of political opinions would be represented.

“It is more likely than not we will never get a Virginia-class submarine from the US, but where is the plan B?” Turnbull asked. “This is completely unacceptable.”

The invitation to participants says: “The breakneck speed at which the second Trump administration is challenging and overturning assumptions about the international order compels close allies to re-examine the fundamentals of their foreign and defence policies. This is happening in the capitals of Europe, in Ottawa and elsewhere, but not in Canberra.”

Earlier in the day, Trump flew to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and did not answer when asked whether he would exempt Australia from the tariffs.

He previously said he would give it great consideration, but in recent days Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said he doubted any exemptions would be granted.

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