‘I don’t like you either’: Trump hits back at Rudd
Kevin Rudd’s savage criticism of Donald Trump came back to haunt him during a high-stakes meeting between the US President and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
At a White House meeting on Tuesday, where Australia and the United States agreed to a multibillion-dollar critical minerals deal, Mr Trump was asked about old social media posts by the Australian ambassador attacking the president.
Mr Rudd had called Mr Trump a westward traitor and “the most destructive president in history” before taking up the ambassadorial post and has since been deleted from social media.
Asked about the caustic criticism, Mr. Trump said he knew nothing about the ambassador.
“If he said it badly, maybe he wants to apologize. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know,” he said.
I asked Mr Albanese “does he still work for you?” he asked. before the prime minister pointed to 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 in the sleigh.
Mr Rudd reportedly apologized to the US president after the media group walked out of the meeting and Mr Trump said “all is forgiven”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Mr Trump’s comments attacking the ambassador were “clearly sarcastic”.
“I’m very pleased that the meeting was so successful that it was a good thing for our country,” he told ABC radio.
“Kevin did an extremely good job of not only attending the meeting, but also working on the critical minerals agreement 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 this important meeting.
“It was a bit unfortunate to be scolded by a president who didn’t even recognize the Australian ambassador and then have his own prime minister laugh at him,” he told ABC TV.
“I don’t think the ambassador’s position is tenable at this time, and it took almost a year for this meeting to be held.”
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
