Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd faces calls to resign over disparaging anti-Trump comments

Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd is facing calls for his resignation after a number of derogatory comments about him resurfaced, raising concerns about his ability to work with the president-elect.

Rudd has called Trump “the most destructive president in history” and a “traitor to the West” in previous tweets, and a “village idiot” and “incompetent” in a 2021 video interview. Sky News exposed.

“The most destructive president in history. He is dragging America and democracy into a quagmire. “He is better at stirring up divisions than healing them,” Rudd said in June 2020. wrote to X. “He abuses Christianity, the church and the Bible to justify violence.”

Rudd quickly deleted previous tweets insulting Trump last week, shortly after the Republican Party became likely to win the race against Vice President Kamala Harris.

But Australian officials, particularly concerned about Trump's proposed 10% tariffs, fear the damage has already been done – Rudd's insults This could have a negative impact on U.S. relations.

“The soft-spoken Mr. Rudd is so arrogant that he actually thinks he can take back every insult ever made about Mr. Trump and get away with it,” Knightly Editor-in-Chief Christopher Doerr said. I wrote this in an opinion piece on Sunday..

“It's ridiculous to even think about keeping Kevin Rudd in Washington as ambassador to the United States,” Doerr argued.

Michael Kroger, former leader of Australia's Victorian Liberal Party and frequent conservative commentator, said Mr Rudd should resign in the best interest of the country.

“Kevin Rudd knows that Washington's ambassador, a fierce critic of Donald Trump, will not serve Australia's best interests,” he said. told the Herald Sun. “In Australia's national interest, Mr Rudd needs to submit a power of attorney to the prime minister, who needs to appoint a more diplomatic ambassador.”

Former Foreign Secretary Alexander Downer told the magazine that Mr Rudd's criticism of the next US president had made his job incredibly difficult.

Mr Downer, who also served as Australia's ambassador to the UK, said: “Kevin Rudd, it may be hard to believe, but you may feel that he cares more about Kevin Rudd than about Donald Trump's future.'' ” he said.

Trump previously said he did not expect Rudd to continue working when he was informed of the ambassador's insulting tweets. During an interview with GB News At the beginning of this year.

“If he does, he won't be there for long,” President Trump said at the time. “I don't know much about him, but I hear he was a bit of a mean guy. I hear he's not the brightest light bulb… If he's got any animosity, he's not going to be around for a long time.” It won’t be there.”

Mr Rudd said his past criticism of Mr Trump was made when he was head of an independent US-based think tank, a role that included regular comments on US politics in his statements. I tried to claim that it was.

He said he deleted the tweet “out of respect.”

“Out of respect for the office of the President of the United States and following the election of President Trump, Ambassador Rudd has removed these past commentaries from his personal website and social media channels,” his statement continued. “This was done to eliminate the possibility that such comments could be misconstrued as reflecting the views of the ambassador and, by extension, the Australian government.

“Ambassador Rudd looks forward to working with President Trump and his team to continue to strengthen the US-Australia alliance.”

Rudd is not the only person who has suffered badly from Trump's abuse.

In 2019, when Trump was the first president, Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the United States, faced backlash after comments calling Trump “incompetent,” “unstable,” and “incompetent” were leaked to the press.

President Trump called Darroch an “arrogant idiot” and tweeted that he would “no longer do business with him.” According to the audience. Darroch left Washington immediately after the scandal.

British Foreign Secretary David Lamy has also called republicans in past statements “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic and narcissistic” and “sociopaths with neo-Nazi sympathies”, the Guardian said. The paper reported.

Lamy dismissed past criticism. BBC podcast appearance Last week, he said it was “hard to find” a politician who hasn't said “some pretty mature things” about Trump.