Howard declares Trump ‘unfit’ to run again for presidency
John Howard has declared Donald Trump ‘unfit’ to run again for the US presidency, adding the Australian system of parliamentary democracy would have prevented such ‘a person’ rising to the top.
John Howard has declared Donald Trump is “unfit” to run again for the US presidency.
The former Liberal prime minister who worked with two US presidents for 10 years, one Democrat and one Republican, believes Mr Trump’s refusal to accept the electoral decision of the American people in the 2020 election rules him out as a fit candidate.
Mr Howard says the Australian system of parliamentary democracy would have prevented “a person” such as Mr Trump from rising to the top.
Speaking in a presentation for a constitutional conference of the Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy on Monday, Mr Howard will say the difficulties that have arisen in the US should make Australians “thankful for our current political system”.
Referring to potential of a rerun of the 2020 US presidential election when Joe Biden defeated the incumbent Mr Trump, Mr Howard says the American system has created: “The seeming inevitability of a rerun of the 2020 election between, on the one hand, somebody who’s criticised for failing cognitive values and another person who wouldn’t accept the umpire’s decision.
“And, as a lover of cricket, I think once the finger is going up and you’ve filed your review, you’ve got to leave the field with no further demur. But, that particular person didn’t, and I think that renders him unfit to occupy the office again.”
Mr Howard says that in Australia’s parliamentary democracy the people who observe the leadership aspirants are able to see their “judgments which are very valuable and very informative”.
“Somebody like the person that I referred to who didn’t leave the field, would not have risen to the top in a parliamentary system,” he says.
Former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott will tell the conference the US system is making a spectacle of itself.
“Much as we all admire … and much as we appreciate its great strengths, America has been making a bit of a spectacle of itself recently,” he says.
“I don’t think any side of politics can be all that proud of the way things have gone in America lately.”
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