Source : the age
Penny Wong and Donald Trump: the cerebral, cautious champion of Labor’s left and the brash real estate tycoon turned Republican hero. It hardly sounds like a match made in political heaven. Yet, there was Australia’s foreign minister, in prime position at Trump’s inauguration in the Capitol Rotunda, seated next to his elder sister Elizabeth Trump Grau.
Wong stood out in a crowd that was dominated by leading figures from the global right. Former British prime minister Boris Johnson was there instead of the UK’s current leader, Labour’s Keir Starmer, who didn’t score an invitation. Argentinian President Javier Milei and Italian leader Giorgia Meloni, both populist conservatives, were there too.
Penny Wong joined foreign ministers from the Quad to represent Australia at Donald Trump’s inauguration.Credit: Twitter X
Wong, one of only a handful of foreign dignitaries in the room, received a golden ticket to the event despite the crowd size being dramatically cut back when the inauguration was moved indoors because of freezing temperatures. Countries with far bigger populations and economies than Australia’s – such as France and Germany – didn’t make the cut.
It was “such a privilege and honour to be the first Australian foreign minister to be invited and to attend an inauguration”, Wong enthused after the ceremony.
Wong’s invitation was a promising sign for the United States-Australia alliance, which has entered a new and challenging era with Trump’s return to the White House.
During Trump’s first term, the Coalition was in power. After initially clashing over the resettlement of refugees from Australian offshore detention centres, Trump and Malcolm Turnbull formed a strong rapport. Trump hit it off quickly with Scott Morrison, who received a rare invitation for a White House state visit in 2019.
Not the cheap seats: Penny Wong was in the rotunda for the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.Credit: AP
Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese got along noticeably well, helped by the fact they were both from the centre-left. It’s less of a natural fit now the metaphorical MAGA flag is again flying above the White House, with action on climate change the most obvious point of disagreement (in one of his first official acts on Tuesday, Trump again pulled the US out of the Paris climate accord).
Despite these political differences, Trump has a clear soft spot for Australia, as former US ambassador Joe Hockey said on Tuesday. Helping Australia’s generally amiable reputation with Americans is the fact we have a trade deficit with the US, meaning Trump does not think we are “ripping off” Americans by selling more to them than they do to us. Such goodwill is not something to take for granted: look at the way Trump is feuding with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, threatening to punish them with heavy tariffs.
Notably, the foreign ministers from the other Quad nations – India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japan’s Takeshi Iwaya – were also in the rotunda with Wong. This shows Trump, whose first administration resuscitated the Quad, continues to see it as an important vehicle for foreign policy. That is welcome news for Australia given the grouping has significantly elevated our international standing and has strong potential – still largely unrealised – to act as a counterweight to China in the Asia-Pacific region.
On Wednesday, Wong and the other Quad foreign ministers will meet Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who last week enthusiastically endorsed the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine pact at his Senate confirmation hearing. “It is something that I think you’re going to find very strong support for in this administration,” Rubio said, giving the first official confirmation that Trump would back AUKUS.
As for Australia’s man in Washington, Kevin Rudd is showing no signs of going anywhere despite his past criticisms of Trump and an ominous tweet last November by top Trump aide Dan Scavino suggesting Rudd’s days were numbered. Rudd met Trump briefly at his golf course in Florida and was invited to the inauguration (because of crowd restrictions he was in an overflow room with other dignitaries).
We’re still in the earliest days of the Trump administration, and there will be challenges and surprises with such a volatile, transactional figure in the White House. Could he, for example, try to squeeze more money out of Australia to pay for the AUKUS submarines? Most definitely. And the task remains for Albanese to build personal chemistry with Trump in a face-to-face meeting, ideally before a Quad summit that may not take place until late in the year.
The vast majority of countries, however, would be desperate to trade places with Australia as they navigate the choppy waters caused by Trump’s remarkable return to the pinnacle of global politics.
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