(Bloomberg) — US President Donald Trump praised his “very good relationship” with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who defeated an opponent seen by voters as too similar to the American leader in an election on Saturday.
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Asked about the result at the White House on Sunday, Trump said that he was “very friendly with Albanese,” adding that he believed the Australian leader had been “very nice” and “very respectful” to him. Following a phone call between the two leaders in February, Trump described Albanese as a “very fine man.”
Albanese’s center-left government was re-elected by a surprisingly large margin, with voters choosing continuity over change at a time of mounting global instability. The Australian prime minister said at a press conference in Canberra on Monday that he had spoken to Trump over the phone in the wake of his election win, describing the conversation as “very warm and positive.”
Albanese said the two leaders had discussed the US tariff regime and the Aukus security pact, which could see Australia purchase a number of American nuclear-powered submarines in the early 2030s.
When Albanese was asked during the second election debate of the campaign whether he trusted Trump, the Australian prime minister said that he had “no reason not to.”
Trump added on Sunday that he had no idea who had been running against Albanese in the election, despite outgoing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton saying during the campaign that he could have got a better deal in tariff negotiations with the president.
Dutton was likely damaged at Saturday’s vote by his perceived affinity with Trump, and the center-right opposition is now at loggerheads over whether to embrace MAGA-style ideology or reject it in the wake of a disastrous campaign.
Trump is deeply unpopular with Australians, with a Redbridge opinion poll in March finding 59% of voters disapproved of the US president even before his decision to impose broad tariffs on Australian goods.
Dutton had initially praised Trump as a “big thinker” and “shrewd” before he was forced to backtrack as it became clear the US leader was deeply unpopular. Dutton was also forced to backtrack on a Trump-style policy of requiring government employees to return to the office early in the campaign.
