Trump tells Rudd ‘all is forgiven’ – but the Opposition wants him gone as ambassador

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“I don’t believe he should stay in that role,” Ley told Sky News on Tuesday.

“It’s taken nearly a year to get this meeting, and that’s been a failure of the ambassador.

“And when the ambassador is the punchline of the joke and the Prime Minister is actually laughing at him, I think that tells us all we need to know about the fact that it’s probably not reasonable that he continue in the role because there are critically important issues to address.”

 Trump smiles at Albanese.

Mates: Trump smiles at Albanese.Credit: Bloomberg

Rudd scrubbed critical comments about Trump from his online record after Trump’s election victory last year, including posts in which he excoriated Trump as “the most destructive president in history” and described him as a “traitor to the West”.

Video has subsequently emerged of Rudd describing Trump as a “village idiot” in 2021, before he was appointed to his ambassadorial role in December 2022.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong defended Rudd, arguing the president was joking. “We heard the laughter,” Wong told Today. “We know that we had a very successful meeting.”

She said the ambassador deserved credit for the meeting. “He’s worked so hard on ensuring AUKUS and the delivery of the submarines in our national interest,” Wong said.

Kevin Hogan, the opposition trade spokesman, said: “Rudd needs to be removed immediately given his unprofessional comments he has made about the US President. It is compromising the relationship between Australia and the US.”

Hogan said the benchmark for success was not met given Trump did not provide any reduction to the 50 per cent tariff rate on steel and aluminium exports.

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“This is a great disappointment to everyone who works in these industries,” Hogan said.

“The UK has achieved this carve out. Albanese has failed.”

Australia already has the equal lowest general tariff rate available.

Former US ambassador Arthur Sinodinos said Trump’s exchange with Rudd was a matter of “live by the sword, you die by the sword”.

“Clearly, some remarks that Kevin had made in the past got picked up by the president, or he was reminded of them and made his views very clear,” Sinodinos told the Today show.

“I don’t think this means that Prime Minister Albanese, is about to junk the ambassador or anything like that.

“They’re very close, and it would look as if he was succumbing to pressure to do that.“

Overall, the meeting had been a “very positive day for Australia”, Sinodinos said.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last year said that “it would be the worst possible signal to send to Trump to pull our ambassador out because he was critical of Trump in the past”.

Former Australian ambassador to Washington and defence department boss Dennis Richardson has also backed Rudd remaining in the role, saying Trump’s vice president JD Vance had made even more scathing remarks about the President before they became allies.

How the Trump-Rudd exchange played out

Reporter: “There’s been some concern in Australia it’s taken nine months to get this meeting. Have you had any concerns with this administration? With its stance on Palestine, climate change or even things the Australian ambassador has said about you in the past?”

Trump: “I don’t know anything about him. If he said bad, then maybe he’d like to apologise? Did an ambassador say something bad about me? Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.

“Where is he? Is he still working for you?”

Albanese pointed to Rudd on the opposite side of the table, and Rudd said his comments – in which he also called Trump “a traitor to the West” – came before he was in his current position as Australia’s US envoy.

Trump: “I don’t like you either, and I probably never will.”

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