'Not the brightest bulb': Donald Trump hits out at Kevin Rudd

Washington: Kevin Rudd will remain Australia’s ambassador to the US if Donald Trump wins the election, despite the former president labelling the ex-prime minister “not the brightest bulb” and hinting that his time may be up under a second Trump presidency.

In an interview with former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage on Britain’s right-leaning GB News, the Republican nominee was asked what he thought of Rudd, who has previously described Trump as “nuts”, a “traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history”.

Noting that Trump “got on pretty well” with former ambassador Joe Hockey, who used to play rounds of golf with then-president Trump, Farage said: “Now they’ve appointed Kevin Rudd, a former Labor MP. I mean, he has said the most horrible things – you were a destructive president, a traitor to the West – and he’s now Australia’s ambassador in Washington …”

“He won’t be there longer if that’s the case,” Trump replied.

“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.”

In response to the Trump comments, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would keep Rudd as ambassador.

“Even [Opposition Leader Peter] Dutton has expressed confidence in Mr Rudd, Mr Rudd is a very effective ambassador. He’s recognised as doing – across this parliament – an excellent job in advancing Australia’s interests in the United States,” Wong said.

“I point you in particular to the phenomenal amount of work being done on AUKUS in the period that he has been ambassador.

“He has been active in engaging with members of Congress on both sides of politics and he is a former prime minister, former foreign minister, is experienced … [which] means he will be able to work closely with whoever is elected by the American people as the United States’ president.”

The comments come eight months before November’s election, in which Trump and Joe Biden are both seeking a second term in the White House.

During the interview with Farage, with whom Trump appeared in public during the 2016 election, the ex-US president also suggested he could move to deport Prince Harry from the US over claims he lied on his visa application about taking drugs.

The comment was made in reference to Harry being accused of giving false information to the Department of Homeland Security when he moved to the US with his wife Meghan Markle in June 2020.

“We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied, they’ll have to take appropriate action,” Trump said.

He also doubled down on his earlier comments that he would not seek to protect NATO members under attack by Russia if they did not pay their share of defence spending.

“Why should we guard these countries that have a lot of money and the United States was paying for most of NATO?”

Trump’s remarks about Rudd come less than a year after the former Labor leader officially began his term as Australia’s 23rd ambassador to the US.

His appointment marked the first time a former Australian PM had taken the post, in a move that boosted Canberra’s diplomatic clout and access to powerbrokers in Washington.

“He’s been really aggressive – in a good way – in terms of reaching up to the Hill,” Democrat Congressman Joe Courtney told this masthead after meeting Rudd for the first time last year, where they discussed the AUKUS submarine pact and his “clear-eyed view of the challenge in the Indo-Pacific”.

In response to Trump’s comments today, Courtney took to social media to note that Rudd was “respected & admired by legislators on both sides of the aisle – a rare feat in DC” and that the US-Australia alliance was stronger due to his work in helping to create a bipartisan consensus on the AUKUS submarine deal.

But Rudd – who is the former head of the Asia Society and one of the world’s top experts on China – was always going to face a balancing act in the job, given his past public comments.

Asked last year if his past criticism of Trump would affect Australia’s relationship with the US, he did not answer directly but replied: “I’ve been in this town on and off for the last 30 years. I have bucket loads of Republican friends and bucket loads of Democrat friends … so I’m pretty confident those relationships have not only continued but will be sustained and strengthened.”

Rudd has been contacted for comment. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Albanese government said: “Kevin Rudd is doing a good job as Australia’s ambassador to the United States.”

While the home nation of an ambassador appoints them to the role rather than the government of the country they serve in, Trump’s rebuke comes at a sensitive time in the relationship between Australia and the US.

Last week, the US announced it would cut a Virginia-class submarine from its latest budget in a move that critics fear could send a troubling signal to Canberra about Washington’s commitment to the AUKUS military pact.

Trump, if elected, could technically seek to remove Rudd’s diplomatic accreditation, but this would be an unprecedented step in the history of US-Australia relations and would inevitably damage the alliance between the two countries.

“Trump is making it clear that, if elected, he will end Australia’s capacity to independently determine our Ambassador to the US,” former Labor Senator Doug Cameron, a critic of AUKUS, wrote on X.

“It’s a possibility that Trump, despite his obnoxious authoritarian personality, could be elected. So much for the myth of independence within AUKUS!”

Asked about the comments on Sky News, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she did not wish to speculate “on what might transpire” but noted: “I do want to say this, Kevin Rudd is our ambassador, so we want him to do well because he represents Australia’s national interests in the US.”

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