Anthony Albanese's Palestine stand the latest low in US-Australia relationship after Labor's repeated attacks on Donald Trump

Sky News AU

4 hours ago

The state of the relationship between President Donald J. Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is not only strained - it is nearly non-existent.
The diplomatic coldness that now exists between the leaders of two long-standing allied nations is largely the result of political miscalculation on Mr Albanese's part.
Now that Trump is in his second term, with control of the White House and a renewed mandate from the American people, Mr Albanese finds himself in the awkward position of needing a meeting with a man he publicly insulted and who, to this point, has declined even to meet him once.
In 2017, Mr Albanese admitted that Trump 'scares me', while in 2020 Australia's now-ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd called Trump 'the most destructive American president in history'.
These lines may have played well in left-wing media circles, but they were short-sighted.
At the time, Mr Albanese likely assumed Trump's political relevance would fade after the 2020 election.
Like many global progressives, he misunderstood Trump not just as a person but as a political force.
He failed to grasp that Trump's movement had roots in widespread discontent with globalism, political elitism, and unchecked bureaucracy - forces that would return Trump to the White House in 2024 with even stronger resolve than before.
The diplomatic cost of that miscalculation is now concrete.
In April 2025, the US imposed a 10 per cent baseline 'reciprocal tariff' on most Australian goods, effectively overriding the near-zero-rate access Australia enjoyed under the AUSFTA.
By early June, Australian steel and aluminum exports faced a 50 per cent tariff, up from the exemption status under Trump's first term.
Trump's tariffs have the potential to wreak havoc on Australia's economy.
The US is the fifth largest partner destination for Australian goods exports, which totalled almost $24 billion in 2024.
Compounding the pressure, the US has floated tariffs as high as 200 per cent on pharmaceuticals, raising alarm because Australia's pharmaceutical exports alone were worth $2.1 billionlast year.
The Albanese government had hoped its longstanding alliance and trade surplus with the US would earn it favourable consideration, but those hopes have been dashed.
The White House refused to exempt Australia from the steel and aluminum tariffs, even rejecting a proposal that offered Australia's critical minerals as leverage.
Australia wants concessions.
But Mr Albanese is approaching a president who neither forgets slights nor sees value in rewarding a leader who went out of his way to insult him.
Now the Australian Prime Minister has defied the US and Israel to recognise Palestine, a declaration that will only deepen the tensions between Canberra and Washington DC.
In the transactional world of Trump diplomacy, respect is currency and Mr Albanese has none to spend.
In contrast, other world leaders, even those with differing ideological views than Trump, have managed to navigate the President's second term with pragmatism.
They've sought personal rapport and ensured that lines of communication remained open.
Leaders like India's Narendra Modi and France's Emmanuel Macron may not agree with Trump politically, but both have a strong relationship with the US President because they understand that he responds best to those who treat him as an equal instead of an adversary.
There is also a broader issue at play: Mr Albanese continues to act as though Trump's presidency is an aberration, rather than a reflection of a lasting shift in American political identity.
In February, when asked to respond to Trump's statements that outlined a different vision of America's role in the world, Mr Albanese said disparagingly: 'I'm not going to provide a running commentary on statements by the President of the United States.'
Mr Albanese's attitude seems to assume that Trump's term is simply another blip, or unfortunate temporary phase, rather than the continuation of a durable political realignment in the US.
Trump represents a populist-nationalist current that is reshaping not just the US, but the Western alliance system as a whole.
Leaders who ignore this, or who denigrate it, do so at their own peril.
At the same time, Mr Albanese rejected the Trump Administration's request to increase Australia's defense spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.
Mr Albanese dismissed the idea, calling the requested benchmark an arbitrary 'magic number'.
With global tensions rising in the Indo-Pacific, it is more important than ever that Australia remain in lockstep with its primary strategic partner.
That becomes increasingly difficult when the US President views the Australian Prime Minister as irrelevant, or worse, hostile.
There is still a narrow window for course correction.
If Mr Albanese wants to secure tariff relief and avoid being shut out of defense cooperation upgrades, he must first earn Trump's respect.
That may involve a public acknowledgment that past rhetoric was inappropriate, or at least a strong, unequivocal signal that Australia is ready to deal on equal terms.
It will also require outreach to Trump-aligned US lawmakers and key administration officials, who can serve as intermediaries in building a strong relationship between the two leaders.
But more than anything, it will require humility - something in short supply among leaders who have spent years publicly criticising Trump.
Ultimately, repairing the diplomatic freeze between Trump and Mr Albanese will come down to respect and readiness to act in the national interest.
Mr Albanese failed to understand President Trump and dismissed the political movement he represents.
The PM now finds himself asking for favours from a man who has no reason to grant them.
It's a cautionary tale of ideology blinding leadership, and a lesson that others in the international community would do well to learn.
Kristin Tate is a US-based writer. She pens a weekly column for The Messenger focused on federal spending and has written three books, the most recent of which is titled 'The Liberal Invasion of Red State America'. She is a contributor for Sky News and appears weekly to discuss US politics