The Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd’s ability to work constructively with the Trump administration if he is to secure the presidency in the upcoming November election may be uncertain, as more examples resurface of the former prime minister making politically charged and highly offensive comments about Trump during his last term in office.
Mr Rudd’s previous remarks about Donald Trump have dominated headlines in Australia and around the world over the past 24-hours after the former president was asked about Rudd’s assessment of him as a “destructive president” and a “traitor to the west”.
In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election hit back saying he has heard Rudd is “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb”.
The explosive comments from Trump have caused chaos in Washington and Rudd is reportedly “furious” after his viability as ambassador was called into question in parliament on Wednesday.
The full Trump and Farage interview is available to watch in full on demand on the new SkyNews.com.au Streaming Subscription now.
SkyNews.com.au can today reveal comments made by now-Ambassador Rudd about the likely incoming president during his first term, which provided a scathing judgement on his intellect, his foreign policy credentials and his supporters.
At an address to the Oxford Union in 2017, Rudd said of then-President Trump that he was a “problem” for Australia and the world more broadly.
“Trump at present represents a political liability for both sides of Australian politics,” Mr Rudd said.
“This guy is a problem. He is an objective problem, for the world, for the region, for my country.”
During the address, Mr Rudd – who had transitioned from politician to active political commentator – suggested Congressional Republicans in the United States should act to remove Trump from office.
“I believe things are, so precarious on these questions that the Republican Party, which enabled this guy to be elected, have a deep responsibility, a deep responsibility to accept responsibility for the consequence of their actions and begin the processes for one form or another of his removal by constitutional means,” he said.
Speaking to the Cambridge University Union in 2018, Mr Rudd provided a broad swipe of supporters of the then president, dismissing them as “angry white men”.
“If you looked at a Trump rally and how many angry white men there are in those rallies,” he said.
After leaving politics Mr Rudd took up residency in the United States where he joined numerous think tanks and served as an academic before becoming President of the American think tank Asia Society.
During that period Mr Rudd reserved his most scathing critiques of president Trump for the foreign policy sphere.
In an address to the Asia Society in 2018, Mr Rudd ridiculed the then president’s foreign policy credentials and questioned his efficacy in negotiating a resolution to a trade war between the United States and China.
“Donald, as we know, is not, a leading intellectual force,” Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd said the president campaigned in 2016 to pin the problems of “all you people out there in Trump land” on China.
But he claimed Trump’s quintessential style would not lead to results in negotiating in China, ridiculing the president’s “unpredictability”.
“What China's strategic culture loathes and detests most is unpredictability … From today to next week to next month, next year,” he said.
“Well, welcome to the, the psychic world of Donald Trump. Because that's what it's like. He just changes. He turns on a dime.
“Now that might work in the world of golf courses. I'm not sure it works with another nuclear weapon state, but that nonetheless is how he's approaching this.”
Mr Trump’s rebuke of the US Ambassador has caused shockwaves back in Australia, with questions being raised over whether Mr Rudd’s position in Washington is tenable.
The former president’s claim that Mr Rudd “won’t be there long” has led to growing concerns Mr Rudd won’t be able to effectively deal with a Trump White House.
Leading security expert Michael Shoebridge told Sky News Australia if Mr Rudd was to find it difficult to “advance Australia’s interests” in a Trump administration that would seriously damage his credibility in Washington.
Former Liberal party powerbroker Michael Kroger has also claimed no senior member of the Trump administration, if he was elected would “deal with Rudd or Australia”.
“This guy's completely persona non grata,” Mr Kroger said.
Mr Rudd himself has previously shared his own concerns about ineffective ambassadors.
In an interview with 7:30 on the ABC in 2018, Mr Rudd said the most crucial aspect for an ambassador in either Washington or London was that “they can quickly, immediately and authoritatively get through to the head of each government or administration”.
“I think the real danger is that we end up with the US Embassy in Canberra being headed up by someone who’s undoubtedly a highly competent professional but with absolutely no personal, political line through to the White House.
“That’s the difference in terms of having a plugged-in ambassador or not”.
Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson said while Mr Rudd was at the time a “prominent political commentator” he needed to be more cautious with his language given the possibility of a future diplomatic post.
“I want Kevin Rudd to succeed as Australia's ambassador to Washington DC. It is in our national interest,” Senator Paterson told Sky News Australia on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, he was also, prior to accepting this role, a prominent political commentator in the United States. But if you're going to be an ambassador to a country or you anticipate you might be, you have to be a bit more circumspect about what you say.”
Nationals leader in the Senate Bridget McKenzie was more critical of the former prime minister, telling Sky News: “He should have known better than to trash talk a former president of the United States”.
When asked on Wednesday if the government would keep Mr Rudd in his post if Mr Trump was elected, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: “yes”.
“His experience and skills mean he will be able to work closely with whomever is elected by the American people as the United States President,” she said.
When approached for comment by SkyNews.com.au on Thursday, the Foreign Minister’s office referred back to her earlier remarks and said it had nothing more to add.
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2024-03-21 06:04:31Z
CBMizQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5za3luZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9hdXN0cmFsaWEtbmV3cy9wb2xpdGljcy9za3ktbmV3cy1vYnRhaW5zLWZvb3RhZ2Utb2Yta2V2aW4tcnVkZC1tb2NraW5nLWFuZC1yaWRpY3VsaW5nLWRvbmFsZC10cnVtcC1kdXJpbmctZm9ybWVyLXByZXNpZGVudHMtZmlyc3QtdGVybS9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzUzNjg0ODc0NTdkNjliYTdjNWEyNjI2NDYzZmQxYzkw0gEA
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