Trump had more to say about Kevin Rudd. Albanese is blaming the media

2 days ago 7

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has again backed Kevin Rudd remaining as Australia’s top representative in the United States after Donald Trump suggested he would not forget the negative comments the ambassador had made about him.

Albanese hit out at journalists for continuing to ask questions about Trump and Rudd, saying it was a distraction from the substance of the issues he and the president discussed during their friendly meeting at the White House last week.

Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrive for a breakfast meeting in Washington on Tuesday.

Trump reportedly told Rudd that “all is forgiven” after earlier saying he did not like him and probably never will, when asked about Rudd’s criticisms of the President before he was appointed to his ambassadorial post.

But when Trump was leaving the White House for Asia late on Friday night (Saturday afternoon AEDT), he indicated that he would not forget Rudd’s remarks.

“No, I don’t know anything about him,” Trump said when asked by this masthead’s North America correspondent Michael Koziol about his interaction with Rudd and whether he had forgiven the ambassador.

“I don’t – I think he said a long time ago something bad. You know, when they say bad about me, I don’t forget.”

Asked on Sunday whether he would be replacing Rudd in Washington, Albanese gave a definitive answer: “No.”

“And frankly, it says more about the journo ... who asks the question more than anything else,” he told the Weekend Today program.

“I was in the room. It was fine.”

Describing his visit to the US capital as “an enormous success”, Albanese said: “The relationship that I have with President Trump is very strong ... I’m not worried about the trivia.”

Albanese and Trump signed a major deal on critical minerals during their meeting, and Trump enthusiastically backed the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine pact.

Before he was ambassador, Rudd described Trump as “a traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history” in comments he later scrubbed from his social media history after Trump’s election.

Rudd is on a four-year posting in Washington, meaning his tenure is not scheduled to end until March 2027.

Asked in a separate interview whether Rudd’s comments were becoming a problem for the government, Albanese replied: “No, it’s not.”

“It’s something that there was a lot of what some might call a fake media before I went to the United States about what was important and what wasn’t,” he told Weekend Sunrise, echoing Trump’s regular complaints about the “fake news media”.

“What was important was the issues of substance, that’s what I’m focused on,” Albanese said.

He again criticised the media, saying it was unsurprising that Trump would respond when asked “a leading question”.