When Australian politician Anthony Albanese was asked about Donald Trump in 2017, he replied that “he scares the shit out of me.” Albanese is now Prime Minister and will be forced to work with Trump on the world stage. And much like leaders in other liberal democracies, the good folks of Australia are nervous about the kind of damage Trump has in mind for geopolitical allies. Albanese’s ambassador to the U.S. has even been deleting tweets critical of Trump to protect against his petty wrath.
Kevin Rudd, the former center-left prime minister of Australia and current ambassador to the U.S., has deleted old tweets that have recently gotten attention from the Australian public. Arguably the most critical tweet was posted on June 1, 2020, the day that Trump ordered police to use violence against civil rights protesters in order to walk to a church and pose holding a Bible outside.
“The most destructive president in history,” Rudd wrote in the now-deleted tweet. “He drags America and democracy through the mud. He thrives on fomenting, not healing, division. He abuses Christianity, church and bible to justify violence. All aided and abetted by Murdoch’s FoxNews network in America which feeds this.”
Rudd included a photo of Trump holding the Bible during the incident, which gained widespread attention in Australia after a reporter from the country was randomly assaulted by police as they were making room for Trump’s photo-op.
But Rudd’s deleted tweets have gotten some unwanted attention domestically, and his website is trying to explain that the goal is simply to make clear his statement wasn’t the official position of the Australian government.
“In his previous role as the head of an independent US-based think tank, Mr. Rudd was a regular commentator on American politics,” a statement posted to Rudd’s website reads. “Out of respect for the office of President of the United States, and following the election of President Trump, Ambassador Rudd has now removed these past commentaries from his personal website and social media channels.”
The statement goes on to explain this has been done, “to eliminate the possibility of such comments being misconstrued as reflecting his positions as Ambassador and, by extension, the views of the Australian Government. Ambassador Rudd looks forward to working with President Trump and his team to continue strengthening the US-Australia alliance.”
And that alliance is what Rudd and the broader Australian government are trying to maintain. Because ties between the U.S. and Australia are incredibly strong, but Trump’s plans have the potential to shake up the economic stability that Australia depends on, given the fact that China is its largest trading partner. Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Chinese imports in the U.S. will jack up prices for American consumers, but they’re also expected to have a ripple effect through the global economy, costing Australia up to $10 billion a year.
“If you put tariffs on China, slow down their economy, that means their demand for our exports will go down and incomes of our workers will go down, who produce those commodities,” Warwick McKibbin, a professor of economics at Australian National University, told Nine News.
The U.S. has incredible influence globally as the world’s largest economy with military bases scattered everywhere. Australia signed a milestone new defense pact in 2021 (under President Joe Biden) called AUKUS that will see the U.S. sell nuclear submarines down under. But as the reality of another Trump presidency sets in, world leaders are trying to make sure they don’t do anything to upset the incoming president.
To be clear, Trump has plenty of powerful allies leading some nations of the world. El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele was perhaps the first to congratulate Trump for his victory after Fox News called the race for him during the early hours of Wednesday. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s spent the past year waging a war that’s killed at least 43,000 people in Gaza, also sent along his congratulations very early. And Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban is another friend who many see as a natural ally for destroying human rights.
Trump is prepared to do a lot of damage to the U.S. with his plan to deport millions of people, target political enemies with the military, and pardon pro-MAGA criminals currently sitting in prison. But Trump is also going to have an impact beyond U.S. borders and world leaders are preparing for the shitstorm. There were guardrails the last time Trump was in office. There won’t be any guardrails to speak of this time.
