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ambassador rudd in controversial trumpish hell....

When Donald Trump surprised the political establishment and won the 2016 US presidential election, there was a mad scramble within the Turnbull government to get in touch with him.

Australia’s then ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, came to the rescue by getting Trump’s number from the US-based Greg Norman, who was a friend of the golf-mad president-elect.

For Hockey, it was the beginning of a tough four years in Washington as he worked day and night to keep sweet with a volatile administration that had little regard for the alliance, or the region more broadly.

Under both Turnbull, and then Scott Morrison, Hockey’s access to the White House proved invaluable in terms of serving the national interest, such as when Trump and his protectionist cabinet wanted to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. On each occasion, Australia pulled the friendship lever to negotiate exemptions.

Critics of the Coalition government accused it of cosying up to a madman. Realists saw it for what it was – a necessity. It’s called taking one for the team.

Like the menacing bully in the bar, Trump had to be constantly reasoned with.

When Trump lost the 2020 election, there was relief inside government that Australia had endured intact. Hockey eschewed a second four-year term as ambassador, saying he had been worn down by dealing with the Trump administration.

Should Trump, force of nature that he is, return to the presidency after the November election, the Albanese government will have a significant problem in that the current US ambassador, Kevin Rudd, will be firmly on the outer.

Rudd was Albanese’s captain’s call

Even before Trump re-emerged, the appointment of Rudd to Washington was internally controversial. It was a captain’s call by Albanese. Not even his closest inner circle, including Penny Wong and Tony Burke, thought it was a good idea.

So far, it hasn’t proved to be the catastrophe some predicted, despite the odd murmuring out of Washington about the trademark dysfunction that is Rudd’s leadership style.

 

But Rudd’s conduct in the years leading up to his appointment has now become a problem. Unlike most former prime ministers, he chose to conduct himself in the most unedifying and undignified manner, by choosing the status of social media troll over that of former statesman.

He repeatedly used Facebook to mount vitriolic personal attacks on Morrison, especially his handling of COVID-19. The vituperative nature of the attacks was odd, given their paths hardly crossed when in parliament.

At least Rudd’s fellow traveller Turnbull had an axe to grind with Morrison.

Morrison had his foibles, but was it really the role of a former prime minister to lower the dignity of the office and join the daily pile-on?

Rudd’s exploits extended to Trump, perhaps in the belief the latter was a spent force. Rudd’s various descriptions of Trump as “nuts”, a “traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history” were duly noted.

After Trump won the Iowa caucuses in January, Trump’s former svengali Steve Bannon told Sky News’ Sharri Markson that Rudd’s attempts to “worm his way back into the good graces” of hardline Republicans would be “quite difficult”.

 

“Ambassador Rudd should know we’ve got his number,” Bannon said.

And, of course overnight, in an interview with Nigel Farage, Trump evinced a similar sentiment.

“I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he’s not the brightest bulb. But I don’t know much about him. But if, if he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long,” he said.

Remember in 2019 how British ambassador Kim Darroch was forced to resign after calling the Trump administration “dysfunctional” and “inept” in a cable that was leaked.

Coincidentally, former US National Security Agency head Michael Rogers told The Australian Financial Review this week that to maintain US support for AUKUS, Australian officials should reach out to Trump and his campaign now.

The world will know in November whether Trump is back. If so, Rudd appointed a year ago this month, might have to come home.

If so, that will be Albanese’s problem.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/indiscreet-rudd-only-has-himself-to-blame-for-trump-outburst-20240320-p5fds1

 

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump, declaring the American president to be "nuts" and warning that China could step into a potential regional power vacuum.

"I think the general consensus amongst anyone concerned with a public policy process, domestic or international, thinks he's nuts," Mr Rudd said on the ABC's Q&A on Monday night, in response to a question about US voter support for the President.

https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/nuts-kevin-rudds-scathing-attack-on-us-president-donald-trump-20171030-gzbe47.html

 

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kevin again....

 

 

 

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playing trump.......

 

BY Jacqueline Maley

 

To be fair, Kevin Rudd has been called far worse, and by his own side of politics. So when Donald Trump was lured into insulting Rudd by that noted investigative journalist Nigel Farage, plenty of commentators shrugged their shoulders.

To recap: Farage, Brexiteer-turned-broadcaster, secured Trump for an interview on his primetime show for GB News, a right-leaning British TV channel, on Tuesday. He openly admitted his questions about Rudd – now Australia’s US ambassador – were supplied by his friends at Sky News Australia.

Certainly, the topic of Rudd can’t have been of great interest to his British audience. It was unclear whether Trump even knew who Rudd was, but Farage helpfully supplied excerpts from the former PM’s back-catalogue of commentary.

Rudd had called the former US president “nuts” and “a traitor to the West”, as well as “the most destructive president in history”. (Comments that many, if not most, Australians would agree with.) Trump took the bait – firing back at Rudd, saying he was “nasty” and “not the brightest bulb”. Most worryingly, he said that if Rudd was hostile, he wouldn’t be in his post long.

 

To be clear, Trump was threatening to cancel the sovereign choice of the Australian government (on behalf of the Australian people); the representative of a country that is generally considered to be America’s greatest ally, along with Britain. It was another example of Trump smashing convention and being rewarded with attention – his favourite form of narcissistic supply.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-worst-thing-about-trump-s-take-down-of-rudd-dutton-s-cynical-reaction-20240322-p5feik.html

 

OKAY... TRUMP HAS 99.9 PER CENT CHANCES OF BECOMING US PRESIDENT AGAIN... SO, UNLESS HE GETS SHOT LIKE VERMIN, INSERT THIS THOUGHT IN YOUR CABOSSA... THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?: BIDEN, OBAMA, CLINTON, BUSH DADDY AND SONNY, IN THIS ORDER, BEFORE TRUMP. BIDEN IS A BORN LIAR, A SHIFTY NARCISSIST, A DANGEROUS IDIOT, A DESTRUCTOR OF FREE SPEECH, A WARMONGER, A DOUBLE DEALING SNAKE WHO IS NOW TOO IMPAIRED, HE IS SENILE AND CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING... 

CLINTON PUSHED FOR NATO EXPANSION, INCLUDING YUCKRAINE... WHAT DID HE EXPECT FROM THE RUSSIANS? FLOWERS? BUSH JUNIOR WENT WITH USELESS DECEIT ON ILLEGAL WARS AGAINST IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN... WHERE DID THIS GO? A DEBACLE THAT WAS A BIDEN BABY... OBAMA WAS THE MOST DECEITFUL GUY WHO DESTROYED LIBYA AND WAS ABOUT TO DESTROY SYRIA... TRUMP MAY BE FULL OF HIS OWN SHIT, BUT HE'S LESS DANGEROUS THAN THE OTHER ON THE LIST.

 

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love eventually....

 

BY David Speers

Like JD Vance, Kevin Rudd has changed his tune on Donald Trump

 

Maybe it was Trump-mania buzz in Milwaukee. More likely it was the undeniable shift in the US presidential race over recent weeks that has boosted expectations of a second Trump presidency.

Whatever the cause, Kevin Rudd is a convert.

Australia's ambassador to the United States stood inside the Republican National Convention yesterday and praised Donald Trump's "discipline", talked up the momentum behind his campaign, and urged nervous US allies to "just chill".

Before being appointed ambassador, the former prime minister famously described Trump as "nuts", and a "traitor to the west". Trump, in reply, suggested Rudd was "not the brightest bulb".

Rudd, of course, is hardly the only Trump critic to change his tune. And Trump is clearly a fan of converts.

Senator JD Vance was once a "never-Trumper" who worried the former President was "America's Hitler". He's now Trump's running mate. We'll come back to this vice-presidential pick.

Sticking with Kevin Rudd for a moment, it's been well documented how hard the ambassador has been working to build ties (and mend fences) with Team Trump. Australia needs a representative who can access the highest levels of power in Washington, regardless of who wins in November.

It's part of Rudd's job to be at the Republican bonanza in Milwaukee this week, where Trump is being given an almost Messianic reception after the attempt on his life just days ago.

Perched in one of the TV commentary boxes overlooking the adoring crowd of cheering Republicans below, Rudd spoke live on Sky News yesterday to one of his predecessors as ambassador, Joe Hockey.

Rudd and Hockey go way back. Once upon a time they shared a weekly segment on the Channel 7 breakfast show Sunrise. Over the years this segment saw them trek the Kokoda Track together and even record a song titled "Where is the love".

Rudd was relaxed with his old mate in the commentary box as Hockey drew the ambassador into some political punditry.

"You don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to see where all of the opinion polls in the seven battleground states have been headed now for quite some time", Rudd ventured.

Those polls suggest that even before the attempted assassination of Trump, President Joe Biden was already behind in the seven swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona.

Few doubt the events of the past week have done anything other than strengthen the former president's lead.

Rudd went on to suggest those events might even bring safer Democrat states into play, including Minnesota, Virginia, New Hampshire, and New Mexico.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-18/donald-trump-jd-vance-us-election-and-kevin-rudd-australia/104108926

 

 

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