Awkward moment Donald Trump confronts Kevin Rudd during White House meeting with Anthony Albanese – after the PM signs critical minerals deal and gets AUKUS assurance

The US President met with Anthony Albanese at the White House and, true to Trump’s style, things didn’t quite go as planned.

Trump lost his cool when he learned that Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, who had been welcomed into the White House as part of the Australian delegation, had criticized him before his inauguration.

During the normally friendly meeting, Trump became harsh with Rudd when he learned that he had said “bad” things about him in official meetings.

Asked if he had any concerns with the Albanese administration, including Rudd’s past comments, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about him.”

If you say it’s bad, maybe he’ll want to apologize. I really don’t know.

”Did the ambassador say something bad?’

Trump asked the question as he turned to Albanese, who was sitting next to him in the Cabinet Room. While Albanese admitted Rudd knew, he joked: ‘Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.’

Trump then snapped: ‘Where is he? Is he still working for you?’

Albanese nodded and pointed across the table at Rudd, causing the room to laugh.

Trump then asked Rudd if he had said ‘bad’ things about him.

“Before I took this position, Mr. President,” Rudd said.

“I don’t like you either, and I probably never will,” Trump responded.

Rudd stated on social media in 2020 that he considered Trump the ‘most destructive’ president in US history.

After Trump won the election in November 2024, he deleted these comments and explained that they were ‘out of respect’ for the office of the presidency.

Albanese has also been critical of Trump in the past – but it was all in good spirits in their face-to-face meeting, as the Prime Minister described the two countries as ‘great friends and great allies’ and complimented the US President on his foreign policy initiatives.

He said Trump’s work in the Middle East that led to an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and the release of remaining Israeli hostages was a “remarkable achievement.”

The president told reporters to take photos of the arrival that he hoped to achieve ‘a lot’ with Albanese and said his message to the Australian people was: ‘We love them.’

Trump praised Albanese for doing a “great job” and said: “I hear you’re very popular today.”

“It is a great honor to have you as my friend,” Mr. Trump said.

‘It is a great honor to welcome you to the United States.’

Albanese invited Trump to Australia and the President said he would ‘seriously consider’ it.

Albanese took to X in the final hour to praise President Trump.

She also shared two photos of Trump giving her a tour of the White House.

‘President Trump, thank you for your warm welcome to the White House. “Working together we can deliver to both Australia and the United States,” he tweeted.

The White House meeting was the first time the leaders held formal bilateral talks and the sixth time Albanese met with Trump since his re-election in November.

The two were scheduled to meet for the first time during the G7 summit in Canada in June, but Trump had to leave early due to rising tensions between Israel and Iran.

Although there was a brief encounter at the welcome reception for world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month, this marks the first time the two have met for a private bilateral meeting.

Albanese was also joined by Resources Minister Madeleine King and Industry Minister Tim Ayres.

On the US side of the table were Trump’s Vice President JD Vance, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan.

The Prime Minister also attended the meeting hoping to get assurances that the US would not sever ties with the AUKUS agreement, which would give Australia nuclear submarines.

The more than $300 billion trilateral agreement reached with former president Joe Biden was being reviewed by the US Department of Defense to ensure it was compatible with the Trump administration’s ‘America first’ agenda.

Trump said AUKUS was ‘moving forward rapidly’ and confirmed Australia would buy nuclear submarines under the deal.

When a reporter asked how Trump could guarantee Australia would get the submarines, the President replied: ‘No, they do.’

Trump later added: “We’ve got everything set up, we’ve worked long and hard on this with Anthony, and we’re starting that process right now, and I think it’s moving really, really quickly.”

Navy Minister John Phelan said the US and Australia’s military partnership was especially important for America to ‘project power into the Indo-Pacific’.

He said AUKUS was being worked on to ‘clarify ambiguities’.

‘We are looking at the AUKUS relationship and making it better for (the countries involved)’, Phelan said during the meeting.

Trump explained to reporters that the uncertainties were “minor details” and that Phelan “will handle it.”

At the beginning of the meeting, Trump and Albanese signed the framework for a critical mineral agreement that the United States could use to help combat China.

“We did this just in time for the visit,” Trump said. ‘We work a lot together on rare earths, critical minerals and many other things, and we have a very good relationship. We’ve been working on this for a while.’

Albanese said the mining deal would take the US-Australia relationship to the ‘next level’. The Prime Minister also hopes that the agreement can be used as leverage in any tariff negotiations with the US.’

“This is an $8.5 billion pipeline that we’re ready to go,” Mr. Albanese said as he signed a deal that Trump added was negotiated over a period of four or five months.

Leaders said the agreement covers the processing of minerals.

Critical minerals and rare earths have become a major issue in the US-China trade war. Beijing’s strict rules on its exports angered Trump.