Donald Trump forgives but is less likely to forget ‘awful’ comments made by the Prime Minister, according to a former White House Chief of Staff.
The relationship between the US President and Anthony Albanese has been tense after the leaders clashed over American steel and aluminium tariffs last month.
Mick Mulvaney warned on Friday that the Prime Minister needs to repair his friendship with Trump in order to straighten out diplomatic tensions.
‘Trump’s relationships with foreign leaders don’t really turn on politics,’ Mr Mulvaney told Sky News.
‘His relationships are mostly personal and Albanese has said some really awful things about Donald Trump in the past, as have some members of his government.
‘While Trump’s capacity for forgiveness is almost infinite, he doesn’t do very well at forgetting. So he does remember those sorts of things.’
Mr Albanese said Mr Trump ‘scares the s**t out of me’ while he was in opposition in 2017.
He told reporters on Friday that he has had ‘two constructive discussions with President Trump’.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) has told reporters he has had ‘two constructive discussions’ with US President Donald Trump amid tariff tensions
Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney (pictured) has warned the Albanese government that Donald Trump may forgive ‘awful’ comments but he won’t forget them
‘The way that international diplomacy works is that people have discussions at the diplomatic level, and then people come together when there is a solution.’
But the former White House Chief of Staff said the Prime Minister has a ‘fundamental misunderstanding of how international diplomacy works with Donald Trump’.
‘That’s the textbook… That’s not Donald Trump,’ he said.
‘Donald Trump wants to work with people directly, so the simple fact that Anthony Albanese hasn’t been willing to reach out beyond just those two phone calls and talk directly with Donald Trump probably is hamstringing their relationship.’
Earlier in the week, Mr Albanese said he would welcome Trump to Australia and that he is ‘absolutely’ planning to make Washington DC one of his first international trips if re-elected in May.
However, it remains unclear whether Trump will make a reciprocal visit to Australia, which would be his first trip Down Under as President.
Mr Albanese congratulated Trump on the phone after his November election win and spoke to him again in February – to argue Australia’s case to be exempt from trade tariffs, which Trump said he would give ‘great consideration’.
But it was revealed on March 12, Mr Albanese repeatedly tried to phone Trump directly ahead of the tariff announcement but the President did not answer his calls.
US President Donald Trump (pictured) has threatened tariffs on Australian wine and faced pressure from ‘Big Pharma’ over Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
It’s understood Mr Albanese isn’t closer to securing another phone call with Trump.
The Trump administration is expected to announce its next round of sector-specific tariffs next week however the President has hinted that he ‘may give a lot of countries breaks’.
In the last week, President Trump has threatened tariffs on Australian wine as well as faced pressure from ‘Big Pharma’ over Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Regarding the latter, American drug companies wrote to Trump’s trade boss, complaining that Australia’s PBS was ‘an egregious and discriminatory program which cuts prices and blocks American exporters’.
But, on Wednesday, the head of one of America’s largest medicine companies said he did not back economic constraints on Australian pharmaceuticals.
‘We do not support tariffs on medications anywhere, and we certainly wouldn’t be excited to see a policy like that,’ Eli Lilly chief executive David Ricks told ABC’s 7.30 program.
New US tariffs on Australian agricultural exports are set to come into effect on April 1, alongside new import taxes on Australian pharmaceutical exports unless an exemption is secured.
Unlike 2018, the Trump Administration has overlooked how the US has had a trade surplus with Australia dating back to 1952, where Australia has bought more goods and services from the US than it bought from us.
