From Schwartz Media. I'm Ashlin McGee. This is seven am. Back in twenty sixteen, when Donald Trump was elected president, the Australian government was caught off guard. Then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had to call golfing legend Greg Norman just to get Trump's numbers so he could call and congratulate him. This time around, the government's taking the prospect of his
second Trump presidency seriously and they're preparing. They're strengthening tires with Trump allies and insiders and positioning Scott Morrison as a sort of special envoy or Trump whisperer. Today the Saturday Papers, Jason Katsukes takes us inside those preparations and what the government thinks Trump Vito could mean for Australia.
That's after the break, Jason.
Last month Scott Morrison found a pretty surprising candidate to help launch his new book to the US market, didn't he.
That's right, none other than Kevin Rudd, the former Labor Prime Minister, now Ambassador to Washington and longtime foe of Scott Morrison.
But when I see him say that as somehow God's intervention to appear to him through the image of a portrait of an eagle. As if this is a reference to the prophetic writings of the prophet ied Sire in the Old Testament, I think that starts to get really wacky, frankly.
And the fact that Kevin Rudd is launching this book is a signal that he's buried the hatchet with Scott Morrison and is happy to work with him. If there's one thing that links Scott Morrison and Kevin Rudd, it is their Christian faith. Kevin Rudd was always very open his relationship with Christianity. It was always, you know, there was a real feature of his personality and his makeup as Prime minister.
Like me or loathe me. What I did prior to becoming Prime Minister was write a long essay in the monthly magazine called Faith in Politics, which basically lays it out in black and white as to my interpretation of what a Christian belief means in terms of political practice, which is about, frankly, the theology of social justice.
Scott Morrison is the thirtieth Prime Minister of Australia and the first Panecastle to hold the office. During his term, the United States and Australia forged deeper bond, and now he's written a book about his experience on the world stage.
What was also really interesting about it was who was there some of the people that were closest to Donald Trump during his time as president, people like Mike Pompeio, former Secretary of State, the former Vice President, Mike Pence, and Kellyanne Conway, the director of Communications and longtime counselor for Donald Trump.
Thank you for the terrivic response we've had to the release of Plans for Your Good this week. We're already now in our first reprint. If you've got your copy, I hope you're enjoying it. I hope it's encouraging you.
So Scott Morrison's book is titled Plans for Your Good, a prime Minister's Testimony of God's faithfulness, and it's a real insight into not just Scott Morrison's time as Prime Minister, but also his faith which was sometimes a controversial part of Scott Morrison's prime ministership.
This is not a book that an next politician, former prime minister would normally write. It's not about what I did, It's about what I believe God has done for me over the course of my whole life, not just when I was Prime Minister, as a result of my faith in Jesus Christ.
You know, it was tough when I was in that job.
We dealt with so many challenges, the toughest times the second.
I think everyone I spoke to for this piece showed that, you know, this government is taking the prospect of a Trump victory very seriously. And that's not just people who are in the elected positions, this is this is people right through the bureaucracy. And yeah, they are focused every day on what a Trump victory would mean for Australia and they're working through all sorts of game plans for for how to deal with a with a future President Trump.
So Kevin Rudd getting together with Scott Morrison to launch his book, it's not just about launching the book. It's a way of showing to everyone here in Australia and in Washington that Kevin Rudd can talk to the other side of politics. And and I think he succeeded in demonstrating that very well because some of the names that were at that book launcher are going to be people that he's going to need to build relationships with if Trump becomes president. Again.
Yeah, So tell me a little bit more about them, about Morrison's closeness with the Trump Weldon and some of the characters who exist in it.
When Scott Morrison was Prime Minister, he was able to forge a pretty close relationship with Donald Trump. And that wasn't just meetings in the White House. We saw Scott Morrison actually get up on a campaign stage at one point during the twenty twenty election campaign with Donald Trump.
Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison and he recently won the election in Australia, some of you know, and it was supposed to be close and he blew them away because.
He believes a lot of the same things.
I believe he identified himself as closely as possible, not just to Donald Trump as president, but Donald Trump as a Republican candidate, and that attracted a lot of criticism from people like Anthony Albnezi. You know, it's clear that Morrison's got a relationship with Trump and I think it would be silly for Australia not to take advantage of that. In January, it was announced that Scott Morrison would be had been appointed as a non executive vice chairman of
American global strategies. This is one of those Washington political consultancies that provides boutique advice to people who are prepared to pay for it. In March, Donald Trump gave an interview to Nigel Farage and one of the things he did was prompt Donald Trump with a question about Kevin Rudd. He related some criticisms that Kevin Rudd had made of Trump.
I mean he has said the most horrible things. You were destruct You were a destructive president, a traitor to the West. And he's now Australia's ambassador in Washington.
Yeah. Well, I don't know.
He won't be there long if that's the case. I don't know much about him.
And of course Trump responded in his typical way with an insult.
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 he's at all hostile, he will not be there long.
When Trump said that, of course, triggered lots of headlines back here in Australia, mostly in the Murdock Papers, suggesting that yeah, that Kevin Rudd would be would be recalled if Donald Trump won. Penny one came out straight away and knocked out on the head. She said that Kevin Rudd was doing a very good job and it proved to be a very effective ambassador. And yeah, I think there's no way that they would move to to get rid of Kevin Rudd.
So the moves we're talking about are all in the diplomatic space. But is Anthony Albanezi also thinking about his own personal relationship with Donald Trump.
I think, as Malcolm Turnbull said in a recent essay also in foreign affairs, the only relationship that really counts when it comes to Donald Trump is the leader. And so in this case, it's going to be the relationship between Trump and Anthony ALBANIZI I think he has to really mentally prepare himself for that first meeting that he has with Trump, because we know that Trump is going to try to walk all over him. He's going to try to bully him. And I think Malcolm Turnbull's advice
is in this case, you know really worth taking. You've got to stand up to Trump. That's the only way you can that you can really deal with him and get something meaningful out of it.
After the break, What another bout of Donald Trump could mean for Australia, Jason it teams. There's lots of positioning and strategizing going on to prepare for another Trump presidency. Which areas of the relationship is the government really focused on?
Yeah, I think right across the executive wing here in Parliament House and across the public service here in Canberra and in Washington, the government is very focused on what would it mean for Australia if Donald Trump wins the White House. I think the two areas that they're probably most concerned about trade. So what would happen to Australia's trading relationship with China and some of the other key countries here in Asia. Would Donald Trump want to start
a trade war with China? And what would happen to Australia if he did so? And then the other key area is national security. Big piece of that that is relevant for Australia is aucus, So what would happen to august And I think in both cases, I don't think Australia's going to be at too much of a disadvantage if Trump wins. The Republicans see Australia as a nation that's paying its own way when it comes to defense, aucus is in the end involves Australia paying money into
the US military industrial complex. Republicans seem to like that. They are a bit worried that they won't have enough submarines of their own, but I'm sure that's something that we will be worked out over the next eight to ten years. One of the things Donald Trump has said he wants to do, you know, perhaps as soon as he takes office, is try to end the war in Ukraine. If that means that it's on terms that are very
favorable to Vladimir Putin. What kind of a signal does that send to dictators or other strong man governments around the world, And what kind of a message does it send to China? And how would that affect China's relationship with Taiwan. So I think what Donald Trump does with regard to Ukraine won't affect us immediately, but it will have long term consequences for our region.
If friend's taking the prospect of a second Trump presidency very seriously, aren't they?
Yeah? And I think that's with good reason given what a mercurial, unpredictable president Donald Trump was in his first term. He's acquired a lot of anger in the four years he's been out of office, and you would assume from what Donald Trump says that he's going to want to settle a few scores. When you look at the polls, the averages of all the polls in the US right now, Donald Trump is ahead by about zero point five of
one percent. And I think it's very difficult to predict what will happen, but it's definitely not a certain that Donald Trump will win. And I think you know Nate Silver from that website, five point thirty eighth, he's got this very complex election prediction forecast model and he's saying that right now it's fifty to fifty.
And always remember, we are one movement, one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. And together we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again, we will make America free again, and we will make America great again. Thank you, God, bless you all, Thank you, thank you Pennsylvania.
Thank you.
Finally, Jason, how does Donald Trump see Australia.
I think he probably doesn't think about Australia.
That much.
It probably doesn't know a lot about Australia. But one thing that you know, Donald Trump really values is loyalty. And there's been no ally of the US that has been more loyal than Australia. Not only have we followed the US into every war for the last hundred years, but we've also over the last ten years started contributing
a lot more of our taxpayer dollars to defense. And I think the USC's that Australia is paying its own way and spending more than two percent of GDP on defense, you know, which was this key benchmark that Donald Trump set for US alliers during his first term. So I think he probably when he thinks about Australia, he probably thinks Australia's okay.
Thanks so much for your time today, Jason.
Thanks Ashlon, it's always a pleasure talking with you.
Also in the news today, the salary of the Governor General will be increased by more than two hundred thousand dollars under a bill introduced by the Albenese government. The increase comes as Sam Moyston prepares to take on the role on July the first this year, and the government argues it's necessary because Unlike former governors general, she won't be receiving other entitlements like those given to former judges or military officers.
And a fifth, close.
Ally of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has been embroiled in a growing bedding scandal and golfing his re election campaign. The five party officials and MPs are now all under investigation by the UK's Gambling Commission.
Which is investigating.
Suspicious bets placed on the election date before it was publicly announced, with the investigations even leading to the arrest of one of Sunac's security detail. That's all from us at seven am for today. My name's Ashlin McGhee. Thanks for your company. See you again tomorrow.