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Australia’s US Ambassador Kevin Rudd is facing calls to resign after his slew of disparaging comments against President-elect Donald Trump resurfaced — causing concerns over whether he’ll be able to work with the incoming president.
Rudd called Trump “the most destructive president in history” and “a traitor to the West” in past tweets, as well as “a village idiot” and “incompetent” in a 2021 video interview uncovered by Sky News.
“The most destructive president in history. He drags America and democracy through the mud. He thrives on fomenting, not healing, division,” Rudd wrote on X in June 2020. “He abuses Christianity, church and the Bible to justify violence.”
Rudd hastily deleted his past tweets insulting Trump soon after it appeared likely that the Republican would cinch the election against Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
But Australian officials, who are particularly concerned over Trump’s 10% tariff proposal, worry that the damage is already done — Rudd’s insults could hurt Australia’s relationship with the US under a Trump presidency.
“Loose-lipped Rudd is so arrogant he actually thinks he can walk back every insult ever delivered about Trump and get away with it,” The Nightly editor-in-chief Christopher Dore wrote in a Sunday opinion piece.
“It is ludicrous to even contemplate keeping Kevin Rudd in Washington as our ambassador to the US,” Dore argued.
Michael Kroger, the former president of Australia’s Victorian Liberal Party and a frequent conservative commentator, said Rudd should do what’s best for the country and step down.
“Kevin Rudd knows Australia’s best interests are not served by a ferocious critic of Donald Trump as our Ambassador in Washington,” he told the Herald Sun. “For Australia’s national interests, Mr Rudd needs to hand in his commission to the Prime Minister who should then appoint a more diplomatic ambassador.”
Former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the publication that Rudd has made his own job incredibly difficult by his criticism of the US president-elect.
“Kevin Rudd may find this hard to believe but he might find that Donald Trump has more on his mind than the future of Kevin Rudd,” said Downer, who also served as Australia’s ambassador to the UK.
Trump had previously said he didn’t expect Rudd to have his job for much longer when he was informed of the ambassador’s insulting tweets during an interview with GB News earlier this year.
“He won’t be there long if that’s the case,” Trump said at the time. “I don’t know much about him, I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he’s not the brightest bulb… If he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.”
Rudd tried to say his past criticism of Trump was made while he was the head of an independent US-based think tank, a role that included his regular commentary on American politics in a statement.
He said he deleted his tweets “out of respect.”
“Out of respect for the office of President of the United States, and following the election of President Trump, Ambassador Rudd has now removed these past commentaries from his personal website and social media channels,” his statement continued. “This has been done to eliminate the possibility of such comments being misconstrued as reflecting his positions as Ambassador and, by extension, the views of the Australian Government.
“Ambassador Rudd looks forward to working with President Trump and his team to continue strengthening the US-Australia alliance.”
Rudd isn’t the only one to land in hot water for calling Trump names.
During Trump’s first presidency, British ambassador to the US Kim Darroch experienced backlash after his comments calling Trump “inept,” “insecure,” and “incompetent” were leaked to the press in 2019.
Trump called Darroch a “pompous fool” and tweeted that he would “no longer deal with him” in response, according to the Spectator. Darroch left Washington soon after the scandal.
And British foreign secretary David Lammy called the Republican “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic” and a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath” in past remarks, the Guardian reported.
Lammy tossed aside his past criticism in a BBC podcast appearance last week, stating it’d be a “struggle to find any politician” who had not said some “pretty ripe things” about Trump.
