John Howard would not back Donald Trump to be president again

The former prime minister reveals he would have reluctantly voted for Trump in 2020 but would refuse to do so in 2024 if he had a vote.

Former prime minister John Howard would not back Donald Trump for the US presidency in 2024. Picture: Jane Dempster

John Howard would not vote for Donald Trump if he had a vote in the US presidential election next year because the former president failed to accept the outcome of the 2020 election and fraudulently tried to overturn the result.

The former prime minister (1996-2007) told The Weekend Australian he would have “ever so reluctantly” voted for Mr Trump in 2020 because he identifies more with Republicans than Democrats, but could not do so in 2024.

“Once Trump refused to ­accept the outcome, I wrote him off,” Mr Howard said. “If I had a vote, I couldn’t vote for Trump at the next election. I just think somebody who refuses to accept the verdict of the public and runs around trying to get people to find votes is appalling.

“Nobody likes losing. Remember what he said on the night of the election? ‘Nobody likes losing, particularly me.’ Well, why particularly him? Do you think I liked losing to Rudd? No. Do you think Keating liked losing to me? Certainly not.

“I just thought that was a complete fraud on the American public and the democratic system.”

Asked if he would vote for Joe Biden in 2024, Mr Howard said “it would be very hard” and thought in 2020 he was already showing signs of “losing the necessary cognitive ability to do the job”.

But he did not rule it out, and would wait until the two major party candidates had been chosen before answering that.

Mr Howard spoke to The Weekend Australian to coincide with the release of his government’s 2003 cabinet papers on Monday and discussed meeting several US presidents during his time in public life.

He recalled getting on well with Bill Clinton and especially George W. Bush, who both overlapped with his time as prime minister. He met George HW Bush and Barack Obama, and Mr Biden before he was president. He has not met Mr Trump and said he does not “feel deprived in not having met him”.

Mr Howard previously told The Weekend Australian that Mr Trump’s behaviour was “appalling”, “disgraceful” and “terrible” following the 2020 election, and hoped the Republican Party would select a different candidate to run for president in 2024.

He said Mr Trump was utterly “unfit” to return to the presidency.

Read Troy Bramston’s interviews with John Howard and Peter Costello about the 2003 cabinet papers in The Australian on Monday.