Albanese rules out cutting Kevin Rudd’s US posting short amid doubt Trump forgave his controversial comments

Anthony Albanese has ruled out cutting Kevin Rudd’s tenure as Australian Ambassador to the US short over his past controversial comments about Donald Trump.

The Prime Minister’s unwavering support comes amid fresh doubt the US President had forgiven Mr Rudd for his now-infamous 2020 posts describing him as a “a village idiot” and “the most destructive president in history”.

The past comments had been raised to Mr Trump during a joint press conference with Mr Albanese earlier this week.

It prompted the US president to eye-ball Mr Rudd mid-press conference and deliver a stinging remark: “I don’t like you, and I probably never will”. After media were cleared from the room, Mr Trump reportedly told Mr Rudd “all is forgiven”.

Questioned on his way to Malaysia on Saturday if he had actually forgiven Mr Rudd during the PM’s recent White House visit, Mr Trump told reporters: “When they say bad about me, I don’t forget”.

Mr Albanese, however, backed Mr Rudd’s top diplomat appointment when asked whether he was concerned by the backtracked overnight — labelling the ongoing debate about the relationship as trivial.

He instead turned his criticism on a Sky News journalist who raised Mr Rudd’s past commentary during the Washington bilateral.

“Well, it’s a trivia. And frankly it says more about the journo than it does, who asks the question, more than anything else. I was in the room. It was fine,” Mr Albanese told Nine on Sunday.

“This is an important relationship. And the visit last week was an enormous success. The relationship that I have with President Trump is very strong.

“That’s important because it’s in Australia’s national interest. I enjoyed spending almost three hours with the President last week.

“We got big things done. Of course, the critical minerals deal is a big advance for Australia We put to bed some of the questions that have been raised over defence as well.

“That’s the focus and focus of substance. I’m not worried about the trivia.”

Mr Trump had also been asked on Saturday if he was any closer to appointing an Ambassador to Australia after the Canberra position has remained empty ten months into his second presidency.

“I’m talking to your leader [Albanese], who was just here, and he’s a great guy, and I’m going to make sure we have somebody that he likes,” Trump said before boarding his Air Force One in Washington on Friday.

“I have one or two people [in mind], I don’t know if they would like – I do, I have somebody in mind.

“Here’s the good news, everybody wants to be ambassador to Australia.”

It had taken more than two years in his first term for Mr Trump to appoint Republican lawyer Arthur Culvahouse as the US ambassador to Australia in March 2019.

His predecessor Joe Biden had also taken a year to appoint Caroline Kennedy to the Australian diplomatic post. The gig has remained empty since MS Kennedy’s tenure ended in November 2024.

The US President touched down in Kuala Lumper on Sunday for the ASEAN summit. He’s expected to travel to Japan on Tuesday for trade talks with new conservative prime minister Sanae Takaichi.

Mr Trump will then attend the APEC summit in South Korea, where he is scheduled to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since 2019.

It comes after China and the US have been at odd over international trade, after Beijing introduced tighten controls on critical minerals exports

The tension had created a point of leverage for Mr Albanese during his White house trip, signing on to a multi-billion-dollar deal to invest in Australian processing capabilities to break China’s dominance in the sector.

Mr Albanese was expected to also fly to the ASEAN summit on Sunday evening but isn’t expected to hold a formal bilateral with Mr Trump.