Trump takes swipe at ‘not great’ Australia among complaints about global lack of support for US in Iran conflict | Australian politics
Donald Trump has dealt another blow to Australia, as well as NATO, the UK and the rest of the world, for not becoming more involved in the US-Israeli war against Iran.
At a press conference at the White House on Thursday, the US president was asked to reflect on his phone calls with British prime minister Keir Starmer. He started by describing Starmer as a “lovely guy”.
But he continued: “[Starmer] He did something shocking: he didn’t want to help us. And maybe that country in particular is, you know, the longest bond, the longest ally.
“Australia wasn’t very good either. I was a bit surprised by Australia.”
“I wouldn’t say anyone is great except for five countries in the Middle East. We’ve never had a lot of support.”
He described the Middle East conflict as a “small force” and said: “If there is a major conflict [conflict]I hope not, but if there’s a big event I don’t think they’ll be there.
“And that’s not fair, and we must not forget that as a country because we are spending trillions of dollars to protect Europe.”
This followed a shift in which Trump targeted NATO countries for their failure to participate in joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
He said: “Actually, a few of them made a statement saying ‘we want to get involved when the war is over.’ No, it has to be involved at the beginning of the war, even before it starts.”
“We had Britain say – this was three weeks ago – ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers’, which are not the best aircraft carriers by the way. They’re toys compared to what we have. But ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’. And I said: ‘Oh, that’s great, thank you very much. Don’t bother. We don’t need it.’
“They all want to help now. When they disappear, the other side disappears. They said, ‘We would like to send a ship.'”
Trump made a similar comment about Australia a week ago when an Australian journalist asked him what he wanted from Australia in the Iran conflict. He replied: “Well, they have to participate too, and I’m a little surprised they said no, because we always tell them yes”.
On Friday, in response to the new comment, defense minister and deputy prime minister Richard Marles said Australia had not rejected any request from the White House but declined to comment directly on the president’s statements.
Speaking to ABC TV, Marles said, “We are looking at requests from countries around the world, including the United States, and of course we respond to them within the framework of our national interests.”
“The last thing I would do is make a running commentary on what the president has said. All we can do is respond to this situation, respond to the demands that come from us, but do it with a focus on our national interest. That’s what we’re doing.”
Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt told ABC radio that the government “will not be making a sustained comment on President Trump’s various statements. What we will do is focus on Australia’s national interests.”
“It has been widely reported that we have provided the support requested from us, which is defense support for the UAE.
“That’s the request we received. That’s the request we accepted. And I don’t know of any other request being made from Australia.”
