First Scott Morrison, next Anthony Albanese could be cosying up to Donald Trump

More curious, to me at least, is what Morrison’s visit to the US tells us about the enduring impact of the “Trump effect” on global politics, and of how, even after the insurrection of January 6, the abnormal is being normalised.

Consider, for example, another event on Morrison’s East Coast itinerary, a book launch in Washington DC that resembled a reunion of the Trump administration. Kellyanne Conway was there. She’s the former White House aide famed for introducing the notorious phrase “alternative facts” into the political lexicon. Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo – now a business associate of Morrison’s – was also in attendance. He was memorably described by a former US ambassador in the pages of The New Yorker as being “like a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass”.

Former vice president Mike Pence, who should be commended for defying Trump’s orders to overturn the election result on January 6 and for refusing to endorse his former boss in the upcoming election, also addressed the gathering.

Yet, as well as the guest list, what was noteworthy was the venue and the host: the Australian embassy in Washington and another former prime minister, ambassador Kevin Rudd. Morrison, a Pentecostal conservative, clearly feels at home on “Planet Trump”. But the Labor government, and its diplomatic emissaries, now have to countenance working within that orbit, with all the lip-biting and moral concessions that involves.

Trump recently predicted that Rudd “won’t be there long” after Nigel Farage, during an interview on GB News, presented him some of the ambassador’s previous critical comments – which included calling him a “traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history”. Yet, if Trump wins in November, the Albanese government will have little choice but to play nice. Going all the way with AUKUS gives it no alternative.

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“ScoMo”, of course, is yesterday’s man, so the question of whether he has righteous qualms about embracing someone who launched such a brazen attack on democracy, and who boasted of sexually molesting women, is of less contemporary consequence. But the sight of a former prime minister cosying up to Trump serves as a perturbing reminder that the present-day prime minister might soon find himself having to assume the same position.

Nick Bryant, a former BBC Washington correspondent, is the author of the forthcoming book, The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict With Itself.