Trump confidant warns Rudd’s future as ambassador could be bleak

A member of Donald Trump’s inner circle has signalled Kevin Rudd’s days as Australia’s US Ambassador could be numbered.

Donald Trump, Kevin Rudd and Anthony Albanese.

A member of Donald Trump’s inner circle has signalled Kevin Rudd’s days as Australia’s US Ambassador could be numbered following his past attacks on the US president-elect.

Trump senior adviser Dan Scavino posted a gif on X of sand falling through an hourglass, in response to Dr Rudd’s November 7 statement congratulating Mr Trump on his election win.

The pointed warning to the former prime minister-turned-diplomat and the Albanese government follows the emergence of more negative comments about Mr Trump by Dr Rudd, including one branding him a “village idiot” after his 2020 election loss.

Mr Scavino is a close confidant of the president-elect, having served as deputy chief of staff and director of social media in his first administration and an adviser in his winning 2024 campaign.

He is reportedly in line for a senior post in the new administration, potentially returning to a deputy COS role.

https://t.co/gZgn50AWYipic.twitter.com/ieUTiYW6bG

— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) November 12, 2024

Dr Rudd has many high-level backers from Australia’s political right, including former prime ministers Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott, and former ambassadors to the US Joe Hockey and Arthur Sinodinos.

But Labor believes there is a whispering campaign afoot by Australian conservatives to undermine Dr Rudd’s standing with the new Trump administration by dredging up and weaponising his past comments.

Peter Dutton said on Wednesday he supported Dr Rudd to continue as ambassador, arguing he had done good work in the role and was well respected in the US as a former prime minister.

“I hope that he’s able to form a relationship with the new administration as he’s done with the current one,” the Opposition Leader told the ABC.

He said Dr Rudd had a term to complete and his replacements would be considered by the government of the day.

ANU Professor of International Law, Don Rothwell, said Dr Rudd was not required as a serving ambassador to resubmit his credentials for approval by the incoming Trump administration, and it would be unprecedented for him to be booted from the role.

Professor Rothwell said the only way Dr Rudd could be legally removed by the US was if he was declared “persona non grata” under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

He said such a move would be a “nuclear option” that would create a significant diplomatic rift between the countries.

“The likelihood of that occurring between Australia and the United States, even allowing for a Trump administration, would be completely exceptional,” Professor Rothwell said.

But he said it was possible an Australian ambassador could be “frozen out”, which would put the onus on Canberra to address the situation.

“Ultimately, it comes down to a question as to how effective the ambassador is if they’re not being received, not only by the senior members of the Trump administration, but also members of Congress,” Professor Rothwell said.

Senior Trump adviser Dan Scavino addresses a Trump campaign rally at Madison Square Garden days out from the election. Picture: AFP.

Anthony Albanese again expressed confidence in his hand-picked ambassador on Tuesday, delivering a curt “yes” when asked whether Dr Rudd was still the right person to represent Australia in Washington DC.

Government sources highlight the fact that many who are now close to Mr Trump including vice-president-elect JD Vance – who once compared him to Hitler – have managed to get back into his good books after past negative comments.

But Dr Rudd put his past criticism of Mr Trump up in lights last week, issuing a statement saying he had scrubbed negative social media posts about the president-elect “to eliminate the possibility of such comments being misconstrued as reflecting his positions as ambassador and, by extension, the views of the Australian government”.

They included past tweets branding Mr Trump a “traitor to the West” and the “most destructive president in history”.

The New York Times covered the story on its front page under the headline “Why the Australian Ambassador Deleted Tweets Critical of Trump”.

In his most recently emerged comments, unearthed by Sky News, Dr Rudd told Indian politician Shashi Tharoor in a January 2021 webinar that the US under the first Trump presidency had been “run by a village idiot”.

In another video appearance, in 2022, Dr Rudd told a webinar at Duke University Mr Trump was “incoherent” and occasionally “in love with dictators”.

Mr Trump gave an ominous hint on Dr Rudd’s future in March during an interview with far-right British politician Nigel Farage, calling Australia’s envoy “nasty” and warning he “won’t be there long”.

Mr Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, has also suggested Dr Rudd should be replaced.

“I think the problem … is when people say those things and don’t have a change of heart, it’s kind of hard to have a position like that where you’d want to keep someone who said such nasty things about a person,” Ms Trump told Sky News this month.