{"id":687272,"date":"2026-05-22T12:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/687272\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T12:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:10:14","slug":"kevin-rudd-and-donald-trump-what-really-happened-after-their-awkward-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/687272\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Rudd and Donald Trump: What really happened after their awkward encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was an awkward encounter beamed around the world.<\/p>\n

Kevin Rudd, former prime minister turned ambassador to Trump\u2019s America, sat across from the US president as an Australian journalist brought up some choice remarks Rudd had once made about Trump<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid an ambassador say something bad about me?\u201d Trump asked, looking to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. \u201cWhere is he? Is he still working for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, Albanese said, gesturing to Rudd across the cabinet table. Trump locked eyes with him. \u201cI don\u2019t like you either,\u201d he said, seemingly half-joking. \u201cAnd I probably never will.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moment dominated headlines<\/a> in an otherwise highly successful meeting between the two leaders, even though Trump and Rudd later made up.<\/p>\n

Rudd, speaking in his first Australian interview since leaving the ambassador\u2019s post<\/a>, opened up about what happened in the moments after his \u201ccelebrated exchange\u201d with the US president.<\/p>\n

\"KevinKevin Rudd recalled: \u201cTrump looked at me again and says, \u2018Well you look like a nice guy to me, all\u2019s forgiven. That\u2019s fine\u2019.\u201dAP<\/p>\n

As the media left the room, Rudd recalls, \u201cThe president asked Albo something along these lines, \u2018So, who is this guy?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo which Albo said, \u2018this is Kevin, he\u2019s our ambassador\u2019. To which the president then said, looking at me squarely in the eyeballs, \u2018Well, he looks like a nice guy to me\u2019. To which Albo said, \u2018Well, he is. That\u2019s why I sent him here as ambassador\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo which Trump looked at me again and says, \u2018Well you look like a nice guy to me, all\u2019s forgiven, that\u2019s fine\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of how it ended within five minutes of the exchange which was broadcast to Australia and to the world. And I think that\u2019s quintessentially President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KevinKevin Rudd leaves the White House after a meeting in October.AAP<\/p>\n

Rudd says he harbours no ill will that the president confronted him so publicly, but praised him off-camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve been around politics for as long as I have, you just accept that as par for the course. Sometimes people say things publicly and on the record which they then qualify in an off-the-record environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also dispels the notion that the incident had contributed to his early departure as ambassador, and he rejects any suggestion that he was pushed out by Canberra \u2013 as some people still speculate.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Kevin<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just an absolute nonsense,\u201d he says. \u201cThe truth is, I was on track to serve four years. Then the Asia Society presidency became vacant. It would not be available at the end of four years \u2026 So I could stay for another year and not have a position to go to as the head of a global think tank, or I could leave after three and become the head of a global think tank. It\u2019s about as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rudd says that, in fact, his access to the US administration only improved after the \u201ccharacter-building\u201d White House encounter with Trump. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go in reverse at all \u2026 Was that simply because they knew me better over time, or was it a consequence of this exchange? That I can\u2019t judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

But access alone is not enough, he says. In diplomacy, one must have a powerful argument \u2013 in this case, one that is couched in America First terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo simply go in [and] say: here I am, I\u2019m Captain Australia, and have I got a beaut idea for my nation \u2013 that\u2019s not going to get you past first base.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go in and say: here I am, I\u2019m Captain Alliance, and here\u2019s something which can work for America, and it can also work for us \u2026 If you get that right with team Trump, you can travel a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The former Australian PM says he will one day return home \u2013 he\u2019s \u201ca Queenslander through and through\u201d \u2013 but for now, the US is where, as a world-leading China expert, he believes he can wield the most influence to help avert a catastrophic war between the world\u2019s two largest economies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kinda know this stuff, and therefore the place to be is here. It\u2019s not that Australia is irrelevant to it \u2013 Australia is part of a much broader equation where the principal drivers are here and in Beijing, and in Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Golding <\/p>\n

Rudd also dismissed once and for all that he could pursue the job of UN secretary-general. He was a candidate in 2016 until then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull refused his request to be nominated. Because of the way UN rotations work, the role is now unlikely to be available to someone from Australia for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cZero possibility,\u201d the 68-year-old says. \u201cThe chance for doing that was 10 years ago. I know you may think I\u2019m youthful. But in 40 years\u2019 time, I may not be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MichaelMichael Koziol<\/a> is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"PeterPeter Hartcher<\/a> is political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-687272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}