Kevin Rudd’s savage criticism of Donald Trump has come back to haunt him during a high-stakes meeting between the US president and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
During the White House meeting on Tuesday where Australia and the US agreed to a multi-billion dollar critical minerals deal, Mr Trump was asked about old social media posts from the Australian ambassador attacking the president.
Mr Rudd previously called Mr Trump a traitor to west and the “most destructive president in history” before he took on the ambassadorial role in posts that have since been deleted from social media.
When asked about the stinging criticism, Mr Trump said he didn’t know anything about the ambassador.
“If he said bad, maybe he’d like to apologise. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know,” he said.
He asked Mr Albanese “if he’s still working for you?” before the prime minister pointed out Mr Rudd who was sitting diagonally opposite the president at the White House meeting.
“I don’t like you either, and I probably never will,” Mr Trump said, as Mr Albanese and the Australian delegation laughed off the sledge.
Mr Rudd reportedly apologised to the US president after the media pack left the meeting, with Mr Trump saying “all is forgiven”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the comments from Mr Trump attacking the ambassador were “clearly tongue in cheek”.
“I’m very pleased that the meeting has been such a success that is a good thing for our country,” she told ABC radio.
“Kevin did an extremely good job, not only in getting the meeting but doing the work on the critical minerals deal and AUKUS, and the success of the meeting reflects that work.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said Mr Rudd was the elephant in the room during the crucial meeting.
“To be rebuked by the president, who didn’t even seem to know the ambassador to Australia, and then have your own prime minister laughing along was a bit unfortunate,” she told ABC TV.
“I don’t think the ambassador’s position is tenable now, and it’s taken almost a year to have this meeting.”
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
