How Trump's presence ... and absence haunted the PM

West Australian

5 hours ago

Almost every world leader is haunted by the spectre of Donald Trump's tariff regime and unfortunately, Anthony Albanese is no exception.
Despite this week whistling through three countries in six days, Australia's touring prime minister seemingly couldn't escape the presence of his US counterpart, whether it was real or as the proverbial elephant in the room.
Everywhere Mr Albanese set foot, the subject of Mr Trump and import taxes - not to mention the eventual cancellation of trade talks between the two men - seeped into every crevice of his itinerary.
At home, a face-to-face meeting for the PM with the so-called leader of the free world had been keenly anticipated since it became apparent the unpredictability of his presidency helped propel Labor to a landslide federal election win in May.
So, when Mr Albanese revealed he'd been invited to this month's G7 summit in Canada and that Mr Trump was attending, expectations they would finally meet naturally peaked.
The discussion would have been their first in-person encounter and no doubt presented a prime opportunity to negotiate a coveted tariff exemption.
Mr Albanese's first stop en route to Calgary was in Fiji, where a local marching band welcomed him with a rendition of the Australian anthem.
Soon after touching down and with the aim of blending in, he slipped into a teal island shirt and met with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
"Visiting Fiji so soon after the election is a deliberate decision to reinforce my government's Pacific priorities," he'd insisted upon departing Australia.
But in the scheme of things, the audience in Nadi was pretty much a diplomatic warm-up to Mr Albanese's centrepiece meeting.
Despite standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr Rabuka, he was asked by journalists almost exclusively about whether Mr Trump posed a threat to AUKUS, Australia's nuclear submarine deal with the US and United Kingdom.
The only other issue mentioned was the Iran-Israel conflict, a matter in which the Republican president also holds significant sway.
Rinse and repeat as Mr Albanese flew on to Seattle.
There, he and Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman unveiled a multi-billion-dollar investment in Australian data centres from the company's state-of-the-art headquarters, comprised of three gleaming glass spheres that house more than 40,000 plants.
However the event was quickly overshadowed, with Mr Albanese 20 minutes later rushing to no less confirm his much mooted meeting with The Donald.
Mr Trump at this point was dominating the backdrop of Albo's trip too, as millions of protesting Americans raging against the 47th president on his 79th birthday dominated world headlines.
The No Kings rallies were staged nationwide including, of course, on the local streets leading to Seattle's iconic Space Needle, which transformed into a sea of colour and noise.
In the wake of this drama, Mr Albanese settled into a series of diplomatic talks on the sidelines of the Calgary summit, nestled in the foothills of the formidable Canadian Rockies.
Surely such a geographical barrier would offer sanctuary from Australia's domestic obsession with things Trump but not quite.
True, Mr Albanese might reasonably have expected some handy insights on dealing with the everywhere American president during the first of these bilateral meetings, with local counterpart Mark Carney.
Canada's prime minister had recently came to office vowing to stand up to the US and though Mr Carney had maintained this stance in multiple subsequent meetings with Mr Trump, their discussions had generally been well received.
Rather than keep this topic in-house during his own chat with Mr Carney, however, the subject of diplomacy between allies proceeded to spill into the public arena in a way that must have been impossible for Mr Albanese to ignore.
Especially when the subject of bilateral trade and then certain trilateral submarine agreements was canvassed during a joint press conference at the summit between Mr Trump and Sir Keir Starmer.
"It's a really important deal to both of us," the British PM declared, referring to AUKUS.
"We're very long-time partners and allies and friends, and we've become friends in a short period of time," Mr Trump said.
"He's slightly more liberal than I am ... but for some reason, we get along."
Offering a final word, Mr Starmer added: "We make it work."
And so it was that Australia's diplomatic affairs managed to capture international attention even in Mr Albanese's absence.
Beyond his talks with Mr Carney, Australia's prime minister meanwhile tried hard to keep things on topic himself but the ghost of Mr Trump refused to stay away.
With 24 hours to go until their scheduled sit down, the president suddenly announced his early departure from G7 so he could rush home to handle the escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Mr Albanese promptly said this was "understandable" and with another four rounds of talks to go among other diplomatic events on his own agenda, the show would go on regardless of Mr Trump's emergency exit.
But even in his absence, the US president remained.
Many leaders, including Mr Albanese, found themselves continuing to reference the importance of the agenda which had solely been of Mr Trump's making: free and fair trade.
Days after the summit wrapped up, little seemed to have changed either.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also had talks scheduled with Mr Trump the day after he left.
However the two men had already previously faced Mr Trump, while Ms Sheinbaum received a phone call from him post his departure.
Mr Albanese returned to Australia on Thursday without having spoken to the main man.
He might have had another shot at the end of June, as he was considering attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in the Netherlands, but Mr Trump could just as easily make an early exit there too.
Australia's exports to the US meanwhile continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff and its steel and aluminium products incur a 50 per cent levy.