In an interview with Today this morning, Albanese described his recent meeting with Trump as “warm,” highlighting that their discussions spanned several hours and culminated in a significant $8.5 billion agreement concerning critical minerals. Additionally, Trump expressed strong support for the AUKUS agreement.
“He’s a friend of Australia,” Albanese commented, reflecting on the positive outcome of their talks.
Despite the overall success of the meeting, a moment of tension arose when Trump addressed past remarks made by Kevin Rudd. Prior to his role as ambassador, Rudd had referred to Trump as “destructive” and “a traitor to the West” in comments that have since been deleted.
“I don’t like you, and I probably never will,” Trump remarked to Rudd during the meeting, a comment that reportedly elicited laughter from those present.
Albanese later confirmed that Rudd had apologized to Trump for his previous statements once the media had left.
“Trump asked, ‘He looks like a good guy, is he a nice guy?’ I assured him, ‘He is a nice guy,’ to which Trump responded, ‘Oh well, all is forgiven,'” Albanese recounted.
He said Rudd would fulfil his four-year term as ambassador, praising his “magnificent” work on Capitol Hill and slamming the federal opposition for demanding his removal.
“Ambassadors don’t meet leaders. I don’t meet ambassadors and neither does President Trump,” Albanese said.
“But Kevin Rudd has met every single member of Congress, I think. And he is well-liked on the Hill and he gets things done.”
He said Trump’s rebuke was “pretty light-hearted”.
“It says something about how important we place our relationship with the US that we appointed a former prime minister (as ambassador),” Albanese said.
