Humiliating moment Donald Trump slaps down stunned Australian ambassador: ‘I don’t like you… I probably never will’
President Donald Trump lost his cool when he found out that a member of the Australian delegation welcomed to the White House on Monday was critical of him before taking the job.
In what was otherwise a chummy meeting, Trump got curt with Australia’s U.S. Amb. Kevin Rudd, when he found out that he said ‘bad’ things about him as he hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his team.
Asked if he has any concerns with Albanese’s administration, including Rudd’s past comments, Trump said, ‘I don’t know anything about him. If you say bad, then maybe he’d like to apologize. I really don’t know.’
‘Did an ambassador say something bad?’ Trump questioned as he turned to Albanese sitting beside him in the Cabinet Room. ‘Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know,’ he joked, as Albanese acknowledged that Rudd did.
Trump then snapped: ‘Where is he? Is he still working for you?’
Albanese nodded and pointed across the table at Rudd, prompting laughs from those in the room.
Trump then asked the ambassador if he said ‘bad’ things about him.
‘Before I took this position, Mr. President,’ said Rudd, who previously served as Australia’s prime minister.
‘I don’t like you either, and I probably never will,’ Trump shot back.
President Donald Trump (right) snapped at the U.S. ambassador to Australia for being critical of him during a Cabinet Room meeting Monday, alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left)
President Donald Trump said he would ‘never’ like Australia’s ambassador to the U.S., former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (fifth from left, circled), upon learning he had said critical things about the Republican president
Albanese has been critical of Trump in the past – but it was all pleasantries when they met face-to-face on Monday as the Australian prime minister flattered the president for his foreign policy initiatives, including the tenuous Middle East peace deal.
In turn, Trump mocked his predecessor, President Joe Biden – who had a warm rapport with Albanese when the prime minister first came into office.
Before bringing Albanese into the Cabinet Room, Trump showed him his ‘Presidential Walk of Fame,’ which trolls Biden by depicting the Democratic ex-president as an autopen.
Once inside the meeting, Albanese invited Trump to come to Australia, which the president said he would ‘consider.’
Trump said he had previously visited the country and golfed there.
Biden pulled out of his planned trip to Australia in 2023 to return to Washington, D.C., as Congress was holding negotiations over lifting the debt ceiling.
Trump has been slow to get a meeting with Albanese scheduled, despite the countries being close allies and Australia’s involvement in the AUKUS submarine deal.
The U.S. president was supposed to meet with Albanese on the sidelines of the G7 summit in June in Canada – but Trump cut his appearance short and rushed back to the U.S. to deal with fighting between Israel and Iran.
President Donald Trump (left) greets Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) outside the West Wing on Monday. Despite Albanese being a liberal, he and the president were chummy
The two men met briefly at an event at the U.N. General Assembly last month, but Monday’s trip to the White House officially marked the two leaders’ first meeting.
In the Cabinet Room, Trump brought along Vice President JD Vance, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan.
At the top of the session, Trump and Albanese signed the framework of a critical minerals deal, which the U.S. could use to help combat China in the technological arena.
‘We got it done just in time for the visit,’ Trump said. ‘And we work together very much on rare earths, critical minerals and lots of other things, and we’ve had a very good relationship. We’ve been working on that for quite a while.’
