Trump calls Albanese after saying he had ‘no idea’ who PM’s opponent was in election

Washington: US President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to congratulate him on his election victory, and the two men had a “warm and positive” conversation canvassing trade and the AUKUS security pact, Albanese said.

The phone call paves the way for a future in-person meeting, possibly at next month’s G7 meeting in Canada, which Albanese confirmed he would attend as an invited guest, or in Washington.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he spoke to President Donald Trump from The Lodge “a short while ago”.Credit: James Brickwood

“I thanked him for his very warm message of congratulations,” Albanese said. “We talked about AUKUS and tariffs. We’ll continue to engage. We’ll engage with each other on a face-to-face basis at some time in the future ... I thanked him for reaching out in such a positive way.

“I won’t go into all of the personal comments that he made. But he was very generous in his personal warmth and praise towards myself. He was fully aware of the outcome, and he expressed the desire to continue to work with me in the future.”

The two spoke by phone about 11am, Canberra time, shortly after Trump returned to Washington from his weekend home in Florida. Upon disembarking the US Marine Corps helicopter at the White House, Trump praised Albanese when asked by this masthead about the Australian election.

“Albanese, I’m very friendly with,” Trump said. “I don’t know anything about the election other than the man that won, he’s very good.”

Asked about Albanese’s description of Trump’s tariffs as “not the act of a friend”, and whether they would soon speak, Trump said: “I can only say that he’s been very, very nice to me, very respectful to me.

“I have no idea who the other person is that ran against him, and, you know, we [Albanese and I] have had a very good relationship.”

Trump said he did not know whether he had an impact on the Australian election result. Some analysts have suggested the Coalition’s declining popularity could be partly attributed to an association with the US president and his conservative policies, or voters flocking to the incumbent due to the uncertainty created by Trump.

A White House readout of the phone call was not immediately available, and the president had not yet posted about the call on his Truth Social page, as he sometimes does when he speaks to world leaders.

Other world leaders who have offered their congratulations on social media include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“In an increasingly divided world, Canada and Australia are close partners and the most reliable of friends,” Carney wrote on X. “We have the opportunity to build on that relationship and our shared values to the benefit of both our nations, and I look forward to it.”

Carney, who took over from Justin Trudeau, won a fourth term for his centre-left Liberal Party last week despite the party being well behind in the polls months earlier, when under Trudeau. That win was credited in large part to Canadians preferring Carney over his conservative opponent to stand up to Trump’s tariffs and threats.

One of Albanese’s key foreign affairs tasks will be to restart trade talks with Washington after the imposition of 10 per cent tariffs on Australian goods, the lowest, “universal” tariff rate Trump gave to any country, but one that Albanese said had no basis in logic and was not the act of a friend.

Australia is one of the few countries with which the US historically enjoys a trade surplus, although there was a deficit in the early months of this year. Negotiations were in effect on hold during the election campaign and caretaker period.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a statement on X after Albanese’s victory.

“Congratulations to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his victory in Australia’s federal election. Australia is a valued US friend and a close partner,” he wrote.

“We look forward to continuing to promote freedom and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.”

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