Australia PM backs ambassador after Trump says he doesn’t like Kevin Rudd
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(From left) Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd, US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Australian PM Anthony Albanese on Oct 21.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SYDNEY – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese endorsed Australia’s ambassador in Washington as doing a “fantastic job”, describing comments by US President Donald Trump
Australia’s main conservative opposition party has called for Mr Rudd, a former Labour prime minister, to be sacked after Mr Trump made the comments at a press briefing in Washington on Oct 20.
Asked by an Australian reporter about Mr Rudd’s past criticism of the President on social media, and told Mr Rudd was sitting across the table from him, Mr Trump said: “I don’t like you either, and I probably never will.”
Mr Albanese said Mr Trump later told Mr Rudd “all is forgiven”.
“It was pretty light-hearted, was what it was,” Mr Albanese said in a television interview with Australian broadcaster Nine in Washington on Oct 21.
“Kevin said, ‘Oh, sorry about comments in the past’, and they moved on,” he added.
Mr Albanese, who previously served as Mr Rudd’s deputy, praised the ambassador’s work to build support for the Aukus nuclear submarine deal in Congress and to prepare for the first summit with Mr Trump, which Australia has declared a success.
“Kevin Rudd is doing a fantastic job as the ambassador,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Washington.
Mr Rudd in 2020 called Mr Trump “the most destructive president in history”, later deleting the comment from social media when he was appointed ambassador.
He swept to power as prime minister in 2007 as a Mandarin-speaking progressive, returning the centre-left Labour to office after a decade in opposition. He was dumped by his party in 2010 but returned as prime minister briefly in 2013.
During the 2024 US presidential election campaign, Mr Trump called Mr Rudd “a little bit nasty” after being asked in a television interview with populist right-wing British politician Nigel Farage about Mr Rudd’s social media posts.
This fuelled calls from Australia’s opposition Liberal Party, which suffered a resounding loss at the 2025 national election, for Mr Rudd to be sacked when Mr Trump won office. REUTERS
